Driver spotted on wrong side of Queensway, Southend

Hojatullah Sahami was spotted by police officers driving a red Ford Ka on Queensway in the town at 3.50am in the morning.

Police officers turned on their blue lights and pursued the 41-year-old for ten minutes, during which time he continued to drive along the wrong side of the road and pass other vehicles.

He eventually stopped in Great Eastern Avenue.

He was later found to have been using cannabis before driving, and had no driving licence or insurance for the car.

Sahami, of no fixed address, appeared at Basildon Crown Court on Monday where he admitted dangerous driving and having no insurance or licence during the incident on April 20 last year.

Mitigating, Mike Warren told the court Sahami had been living with mental health difficulties for some time and he was now estranged from his partner, but still sees his ten-year-old son.

He said: “He was sectioned for a month. There was an extended period of him being unwell.

“He has long standing psychiatric issues but he has been here for 19 years now.

“It was a poor course of driving for an extended period of time, but in the morning when we hope the roads were less populated.

“He had been consuming cannabis so it was not only his psychiatric condition that was affecting him at this time.”

Sentencing him, Judge Samantha Cohen handed Sahami a nine month suspended prison sentence, a mental health treatment programme, a £100 fine and 50 days of rehabilitation which must be completed.

She said: “This was caused by a combination of a rapid deterioration of your mental health and your decision to self medicate with cannabis.

“You were talking about wanting to eat mashed potatoes and travel to Iran.

“You were almost immediately sectioned by the authorities.

“But you stabilised with a combination of drug therapy, and you were released.

“But you were recalled to prison because at the time of committing these offences you were on licence for possessing a prohibited weapon."