Personal trainer learns fate after first date horror chase injured seven cops

A personal trainer who injured seven cops in pile-up of police cars after fleeing officers while taking a woman home from a first date has been sentenced to 14 months behind bars. Mazyar

Azarbonyad, 20, was dropping off Courtney Redfern, 27, on April 9, when he pulled up in an emergency stop while travelling at 119mph, causing a police car to crash into the back of his BMW

M5. Cops tried to stop him for a faulty rear light, but instead of pulling over, he gave them the slip and led them on a high-speed chase through Gateshead with Courtney in the passenger

seat as she begged him to stop before the horror crash happened on the A1 near Newcastle. The A1 was closed in both directions for almost 13 hours following the crash, which saw five police

cars wrecked and seven officers hospitalised. Shocking pictures from the scene show the BMW was surrounded by four battered marked police cars and an unmarked cruiser in the road. One had

its roof and doors ripped off. After he was released on police bail, Azarbonyad drove to city centre gym where he worked and police spotted him filling up his car on a garage forecourt,

Newcastle Magistrates Court previously heard. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop twice and having no licence and no insurance during the crash. He has also admitted to

driving despite having been handed an interim ban in the days following the incident. He was due to be sentenced on May 20, but Newcastle Crown Court postponed sentencing until in order for

his driving record to be investigated. On Monday, he was handed a 14-month sentence in a young offenders institution and banned from driving for three years. Fitness coach Azarbonyad, who

arrived for the hearing in workout gear, already had eight points on his licence for driving without insurance after being convicted in 2024, the court heard. The court heard Azarbonyad was

released on bail with conditions not to drive or be in the front of a car. However on April 16 he was spotted filling a car up with fuel in Stanley and admitted he had been driving. Police

then found he had also driven on April 11, 12,13 and 15 to go to work in a gym and travel home again. The court heard a female officer suffered soft tissue injuries to her knee and nerve

damage to her back and she was in hospital for three days. She now requires ongoing physio and may need up to six months off work to recover and has also been affected psychologically. A

male officer suffered a cut to his head, concussion and whiplash and a number of officers were rendered unconscious. When Azarbonyad was interviewed by police, he said he was a provisional

driving licence holder and had no insurance. He agreed he had made off from police on two occasions that night and described his driving as “s***”. He accepted his driving was dangerous, the

court heard. Jolyon Perks, prosecuting, told the court: "The lead police pursuit vehicle’s dash cam shows him doing more than 100mph then approaching speeds of 120mph in an attempt to

get away from the police. "As the defendant approached the junction with the A186 he abandoned his attempt to escape but rapidly decelerated from 119mph to stop in the middle of the

carriageway. As a consequence, the pursuing police vehicles were forced to emergency brake in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid a serious collision. “Several police officers required

hospitalisation and treatment for injuries. Several police officers had to be cut out of the police vehicles. Fortunately none of the injuries sustained were really serious." Mr Perks

said of Courtney: "She told him several times to stop before he eventually did. She thought he could have killed someone. She said, in her opinion, his intent was purely to get away

from the police." The court heard she had a small amount of cannabis on her at the time, for which she was cautioned. In mitigation, Penny Hall told the court: "He was giving a

lift to the female and he did pull over initially but then made off from the location. He says the female said she had drugs on her, something he did not know until she said that. She showed

him something he believed must be drugs and he panicked that he had drugs in his car and made off." Sentencing him, Judge Tim Gittins told Iran-born Azarbonyad: “Just after 1.50am on

the morning of April 9, you were driving a BMW X5 4x4 which you had purchased on finance some time earlier despite having only a provisional licence, despite having no insurance and despite

the fact you had only had three driving lessons. “You should have been nowhere near the driving seat of any vehicle that night, let alone one such as a BMW X5, a large and powerful SUV.”

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