A woman who lost control of a rented £200,000 Lamborghini while driving at up to 140mph has been jailed for 10 years after the crash killed her friend on the M62.
Humaira Batool, 26, from Bradford, was behind the wheel when the supercar hit a motorway barrier near Ripponden, West Yorkshire, in December 2022, flipping over and catching fire. Her passenger, 20-year-old Mohammed Shaan Hussain, also from Bradford, died from his injuries. Batool herself suffered serious harm, including burns to around 10% of her body and a shattered tibia.
The court heard the pair had been travelling to HMP Leeds to collect a friend when they swapped seats during the journey. Within eight seconds of Batool taking control, the car left the carriageway. Jurors were told she had been driving at extreme speeds in wet, dark conditions in the moments before the crash.
Sentencing her at the end of her trial, Judge Ray Singh said Hussain's death resulted from Batool's choice to drive the "powerful performance vehicle" at "eye-watering extreme speeds on a damp motorway in darkness." He told her it was "not a momentary lapse of concentration" but "a conscious decision" that exposed herself, her passenger and other road users to "an obvious and grave risk of death or serious injury" — a risk that tragically came true.
During the trial, Batool had claimed Hussain reached over and touched something that caused the car to surge, and defence arguments also raised the possibility of mechanical failure or aquaplaning. The jury rejected all of these explanations, as did the judge, who said "the sole cause of this collision was the manner of your driving."
Batool was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving in September. She had been due to be sentenced days earlier but failed to appear, with her barrister saying she had gone to A&E because of an endometriosis flare-up. Prosecutor Christopher Dunn called this "clearly a ruse," prompting the judge to issue a bench warrant for her arrest.
The judge described Hussain's death as "tragic and entirely avoidable," noting he did not die instantly but suffered while trapped after the impact — calling it "a truly dreadful way for any human being to die."
In a victim statement, Hussain's mother, Nasreen Akhtar, described her son as a "beloved son and cherished brother, a loyal friend and light in all our lives," adding that attempts to tarnish his memory had deepened the family's pain. His brother, Mohammed Souhail Hussain, said he would "always be our older brother."
Batool was jailed for 10 years, banned from driving for a decade and ordered to retake an extended driving test. Det Insp Paul Conroy said her reckless handling of such a powerful vehicle had put lives at risk and led to tragedy.
Source: BBC
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