This is the dentist who has been locked up for six years for killing a man while ‘showing off’ in his souped up car, driving at more than double the speed limit.
Muzaffar Mir, 33, was driving his modified BMW M2 at ‘grossly excessive speeds’ when he collided with 26-year-old Joshua Wilson in Shipley, West Yorkshire – with a judge saying he reached as much as 91mph at the time of the tragic incident. He was in a 40mph zone.
Mr Wilson had just got off a bus and was trying to cross the A647 Bradford Road on April 11 2023, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Judge Richard Mansell has now described how Mir, from Farsley in West Yorkshire, was trying to ‘show off’ to another driver who was ‘on his tail’ after joining the road.
Prosecutor Paul Mitchell told the court how Mir’s driving had previously been raised as an issue by concerned neighbours.
He said: ‘A local resident had noticed the vehicle being driven at what he judged to be grossly extensive speeds.
‘He went to the local dentist surgery where the defendant worked as a dentist and complained to the receptionist there.’
It was said that on the day of the tragedy, another man had joined the road and was heading in the same direction as the defendant.
Mr Mitchell said: ‘A witness joined the A647 at the same time as him and describes seeing the defendant’s car pass in front and he heard the exhaust.
‘In that period, a number of witnesses described seeing the cars travelling at grossly excessive speeds.
‘The victim was on a bus travelling westbound from Leeds and he got off to cross the road in front of the bus.
‘He crossed the westbound carriageway. As he stepped onto the eastbound carriageway, he saw the defendant’s car coming towards him. He stepped and held his left arm up to tell him to stop.’
But Mir did not stop in time and hit Joshua, causing him catastrophic injuries. The victim died at the scene, the court heard.
Mr Mitchell said Mir stopped and made people at the scene aware he was the driver, adding: ‘The key issue here is speed
‘A system on his car recorded the speed of the vehicle at the time of the collision as 86mph. That is the minimum speed it was doing at the moment of the impact.
‘A police expert calculates the average speed of the car as being 96mph. The speed was well over double the limit of 40mph.’
The court heard a statement from Mr Wilson’s mother Deborah Kennedy, summarised to the court by Mr Mitchell.
In it, she told how his death has affected her ‘so deeply’, saying: ‘I feel like I’ve lost part of my heart and the grief around his death hasn’t left me.’
She said she felt she had been ‘robbed’ of any chance to repair her relationship with her son – while Mr Wilson’s older sister said she was ‘shocked, deeply saddened and numbed by the news of his death’.
Richard Wright, mitigating, told the court: ‘We understand for the family today is another day without a loved one and we know and Mr Mir knows we can’t compensate for that.’
He also criticised delays pursuing the investigation, saying: ‘It took about 15 months for the CPS to make a decision in what we submit is factually not a complicated case.
‘From his perspective, there is nothing he can do about that except wait for the charge to arrive.
‘He has a clean driving licence. He remained at the scene and has expressed what, in my submission, is genuine remorse.’
The court heard Mir had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at the first opportunity.
It had also been put forward in mitigation how Mir’s mother had died a few weeks earlier and this could have impacted his driving – although the judge rejected that.
Meanwhile, Mir’s wife argued it was a ‘momentary and foolish’ decision to speed.
Judge Mansell jailed Mir for six years, telling him: ‘This was not a momentary or short episode of speeding.
‘The moment you drive into Joshua Wilson, you were driving at excessive speeds of between 89mph to 91mph.
‘He hadn’t a chance to see you coming before he made that step into the road. An expert said he took one step into the road and caught a glimpse of you out of the corner of his eye.’
The judge said there was ‘no evidence’ to conclude Mir was racing the other driver but said he was satisfied he was ‘showing off the power and speed’ of his vehicle.
He added: ‘I don’t take into account the evidence of the witness who had previously complained about your driving.
‘I reject outright the suggestion made by the psychoanalyst and your wife that the death of your mother several weeks earlier may have had an impact on your driving.
‘I reject your wife’s plea that this was a momentary and foolish decision to speed. To suggest this was an error of judgement flied in the face of common sense.
‘It ended the life of a 26-year-old man in the prime of his life.
‘It is right to recognise he had his difficulties since his teenage years – for some time he struggled with his mental health, his relationships and he struggled with life generally.
‘However, he still had hope, as did his family no doubt, that life would improve for him and that hope was extinguished two years ago.
‘No sentence I put in place today will bring him back. No sentence should be seen as placing a value on his life.’
Mir was also disqualified from driving for seven years.
Following the sentence, Det Sgt Paul Lightowler of West Yorkshire Police’s major collision and enquiry team, said: ‘Joshua’s death was a tragedy for his family and friends, and we welcome Mir’s sentencing at court for the dreadful driving which caused it.
‘It is welcome that he pleaded to his offence, sparing Mr Wilson’s family the ordeal of a trial, but they must now live a lifetime without him.
‘This case sadly stands as another example of the awful and sometimes fatal consequences of dangerous driving on our roads.’
