Bumbling police tweet '80-year ban' for dangerous driver
- Published
Mohammed Ahsan was disqualified for two years for dangerous driving
Bumbling traffic police were forced to backtrack after wrongly claiming a dangerous driver was banned for 80 years.
Mohammed Ahsan, 20, of Hibbert Street, Manchester, was actually disqualified for two years after pleading guilty at Manchester Magistrates' Court.
The GMP Traffic Twitter account announced the inflated ban along with a video of Ahsan's crash.
It then posted: "It wasn't a typo! He is actually banned for 80 years!"
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The mistake was only exposed when the BBC checked it with the Crown Prosecution Service who confirmed Ahsan was disqualified for two years and ordered to take an extended re-test.
GMP later apologised for the "confusion" but did not clarify how the error had been made.
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Ahsan was filmed driving a Seat Leon driving dangerously on 23 February at The Crescent, Salford.
CCTV captured the moment he crashed the car after driving round a bend, pursued by the police.
In addition to the driving ban Ahsan was sentenced to 16 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months and ordered to complete 100 hours unpaid work when he appeared at the city magistrates on 1 September.