A terrified woman believed she was going to be kidnapped or killed as two men violently dragged her from her car during a brutal carjacking in Keighley.
Imran Altaf, 31, and Dawood Basharat, 39, have been jailed for more than 20 years between them after the woman was kicked, struck and forcibly pulled from her vehicle.
Altaf was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Basharat received eight years and one month at Bradford Crown Court.
Sentencing the pair, His Honour Judge Jonathan Carroll described what happened as an “absolutely vicious street robbery and car-jacking”.
Woman fought to stay inside her car
The court heard the victim was sitting alone in her vehicle at around 8pm on April 10 last year when the two men pulled up alongside her.
Prosecutor Rachel Webster said Basharat approached the woman in a “peculiar manner”, opened her car door and began touching her hands and arms while attempting to get inside.
When the woman tried to close the door, she was grabbed and pushed backwards.
One of the men then shouted: “Get her in the back.”
After realising her keys had been taken, the woman desperately gripped the steering wheel in an attempt to prevent the men from moving her.
The court heard Altaf kicked her twice in the chest and struck her on the head, while Basharat attempted to sit on her and force her across the seat.
Basharat also touched the woman inappropriately during the attack.
Despite her efforts to fight them off, the pair eventually dragged her from the car and drove away, leaving her behind.
‘I thought I was going to be kidnapped’
The woman immediately called 999 and had managed to take photographs of both attackers during the ordeal.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, she described the fear she experienced.
“At one point I feared they were going to kill me,” she said.
“I thought I was going to be kidnapped.”
She described the men as behaving “as if they were not human” and said they laughed while she pleaded for help.
The victim added: “I am utterly terrified that they will come looking for me.”
Police chase stolen car
Officers later spotted the stolen vehicle on the Stanningley Bypass.
Altaf, who was driving, attempted to escape police by carrying out dangerous manoeuvres, including harsh braking and U-turns.
The pursuit ended after officers made tactical contact with the stolen vehicle.
Altaf ran from the car but was quickly tackled and arrested, while Basharat was detained from the passenger seat.
The victim subsequently identified both men during a formal identification procedure.
Judge Carroll told Basharat: “You were part and parcel of an absolutely vicious street robbery and car-jacking.”
Heroin and cocaine recovered in separate incident
Altaf was also sentenced in connection with a separate dangerous-driving incident around a month before the robbery.
The court heard he reversed towards a police officer, struck a police vehicle and fled before abandoning his car and attempting to escape on foot.
Officers used Pava spray while detaining him and recovered £436 in cash and a Nokia mobile phone.
A plastic bag discarded during the pursuit contained 36 bags of heroin and 17 wraps of cocaine, with an estimated street value of £530.
The court heard Altaf, of Harewood Crescent, Oakworth, had four previous convictions covering six offences, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Basharat, of Highfield Road, Keighley, had eight previous convictions covering 15 offences, including assaults on emergency workers and driving offences.
The court was told Altaf’s offending had been fuelled by drug and alcohol addiction, although it was said he had since overcome those problems.
Basharat’s barrister described him as the “junior partner” in the carjacking but accepted he should have intervened to stop the violence.
Alongside his prison sentence, Altaf was disqualified from driving for two years, with a further six-year extension reflecting his custodial sentence. He must also pass an extended retest before he can drive again.
The court ordered the forfeiture of the cash seized from Altaf and the destruction of the drugs recovered by police.
