A man who caused a huge pile up on a dual carriageway in which five police crash crashed and seven police officers were injured has pleaded guilty to his role in the horror road incident.
Personal trainer Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, has appeared at Newcastle Magistrates Court to admit dangerous driving after seven officers were injured in a collision on the A1 involving five police vehicles and a car. He also pleaded guilty to d riving without insurance and a licence several times after the horrific crash. The Iran-born defendant, who came to the UK in around 2020, was behind the wheel of a powerful BMW which was being pursued by police along the A1 near the Gateshead and Newcastle border at around 2.30am on April 9 when the collision occurred.
Magistrates were told that a woman in the car with Azarbonyad at the time was on her first date with him and he was taking her home. He admitted dangerous driving and failing to stop on that night. Having been granted bail pending a court appearance, he admitted continuing to drive on four further occasions, by driving a Hyundai i10 to work at a gym in Newcastle city centre, despite bail conditions telling him not to drive.
The crash happened near the Derwent Haugh Road junction, on the borders of Gateshead and Newcastle, at 2.27am on April 9. The Northumbria force said seven officers were taken to hospital with what it described as non-life threatening injuries. They have all since been discharged. A spokesman said the two occupants of a BMW, which was being pursued at the time, were uninjured.
The collision happened on the A1 carriageway below the roundabout where gunman Raoul Moat shot Pc David Rathband, leaving him blind, in 2010.
The spokesman said officers attempted to stop a dark grey BMW M Sport in the Whickham area of Gateshead at about 2am, because of concerns about the way it was being driven.
The car drove off and was later seen in the Swalwell area.
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