A cocaine dealer who led police on a dangerous high speed chase through Hyndburn reaching speeds of 96mph in residential areas has been jailed.

Aroon Mahmood, of Richmond Hill Street, Accrington, drove through red lights and down narrow streets with traffic calming measures at high speed during the four minute chase, a court heard.

Police spotted the 23-year-old’s Volkswagen Golf speeding on Whalley Road in Clayton-le-Moors and when they tried to pull him over he ignored the flashing police lights.

He sped through various streets in Rishton and Great Harwood reaching speeds of 96mph before abandoning the car on Station Road.

Burnley Crown Court heard when he left the car he grabbed a red sweet tub containing more than £1,500 in cocaine and was eventually arrested after being tasered by officers.

Father-of-two Mahmood pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and possessing cocaine with intent to supply. He was jailed for 40 months and disqualified from driving for 32 months.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, told the court how the incident started at around 4.50am on March 31, 2016.

When Mahmood was interviewed by police he claimed to have borrowed the car off a ‘family friend’ to visit his girlfriend’s house in Great Harwood and denied knowledge of the drugs.

He told officers that he ‘panicked’ when he saw the police because he only had a provisional driving licence and wasn’t insured.

The court heard how the VW Golf also contained small wraps of cocaine, £605 in cash and a ‘dirty’ mobile phone containing drug-related messages, contacts and ‘tick lists’.

Mahmood admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply on the basis that the red sweet tub did not belong to him and he was returning it to a dealer friend who was a drug dealer.

Shufqat Khan, defending, told the court that there was no forensic evidence linking Mahmood to the wraps of cocaine, the money or the mobile phone and that ‘no incriminating evidence’ was found at his home.

Giving evidence to the court, Mahmood said he was allowed to use the car after a ‘chance meeting on the street’ with a family friend.

He said he was told ‘not to touch’ the red sweet tub and believed it contained drugs because he knew the friend was a ‘drug dealer’.

But a judge dismissed his claim following a trial of issue.

Mr Parker said it was ‘implausible’ that a drug dealer would leave the drugs, cash and phone in the car and that they were ‘[Mahmood’s] and nobody else’s’.

'Wholly implausible' - Judge

Judge Sara Dodd rejected Aroon Mahmood’s defence account as ‘incredible’ and ‘wholly implausible’.

Sentencing, she said: “The account given by the defendant is wholly implausible.

“It is in my judgement an affront to common sense to conclude that a drug dealer would allow an associate not connected with drugs to have use of his car in which there was a significant amount of cocaine, £605 in cash and a dirty phone.

“That the car would be left unattended with those items inside for hours before the defendant began his journey and again on reaching his girlfriend home.

“In my judgement the account of the defendant is incredible and I reject it as I’m entitled to do.

“I have no doubt that the defendant knew exactly what was in the tub because he was intending to supply the drugs to customers. The cash I conclude is the proceeds of earlier supply.”

Shufqat Khan, defending, said off-licence shop worker Mahmood had no previous convictions and that this would be his first time in prison.

He said: “He is still a young man at 23. Other people are really going to be affected by his imprisonment.”