Driver jailed for causing head-on crash in Leeds

Ivan Melo was handed an eight-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and having no licence.

Leeds Crown Court heard Melo, 27, had once been close friends with the victims but had fallen out with them at the time of the incident on July 22.The couple had taken their son to see a relative in the Chapeltown area.

Duncan Ritchie, prosecuting, said Melo parked his car outside the house and sounded his horn but was told to go away. Later that day the couple were driving along Boggart Hill Drive, Seacroft, with their son in a child seat in the back, when they saw Melo travelling towards them in the opposite lane.

Mr Ritchie said: “The defendant suddenly and deliberately swerved his car into the opposing carriageway, causing a head-on collision.”

The couple both suffered whiplash injuries in the collision but the youngster was not hurt. The court was shown CCTV footage of the collision. Melo, of Coronation Avenue, Kippax, has previous convictions, including serving a three-year prison sentence for wounding.

Genan Hashim, mitigating, said Melo and his partner had previously been close friends of the injured couple.

She said Melo had swerved across the road in the hope of making the vehicle stop and did not intend to injure anyone or cause a collision.

Jailing Melo, Recorder Gurdial Singh said: “It is luck, not judgement, that those injuries were not serious.

“It is luck, not judgement, that no one was killed because of your mindless stupidity.

“This is an offence that is clearly so serious that is has to be an immediate sentence of imprisonment.”