Hawkar Karimi, 37, of Salisbury Road in Wavertree, admitted dangerous driving at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday 20 October 2026. He was given 12 months' imprisonment, suspended for a year, with 100 hours of unpaid work and 12 months on probation. He is banned from driving for 30 months and must pass an extended retest before he can drive again. The other driver is not named. The Liverpool Echo reported the hearing on 21 October. The suspension is linked there to the Sentencing Act 2026, in force from March 2026, under which a sentence of 12 months or less has to be suspended unless the circumstances are exceptional. Judge Stuart Driver KC found none, and took the view that Karimi deserved to go to prison.
Shortly after 7pm on 13 September 2025, Karimi was in a road rage incident with that driver. Dashcam in his hackney carriage showed the two men exchanging blows in the road. He got back into the cab and chased the other car through the L15 area.
The chase
Prosecutor Paul Blasbery set out the route. Karimi drove at speed on residential streets and through a red light, pursuing the other man along Durning Road and Botanic Road. He hit the back of the car once. Towards the end of the chase he hit it again, pushing it out into Edge Lane, then drove into the rear a third time. The car was pushed into a wall near the furniture shop Patsy's Place. The other driver had got out seconds earlier and run along Edge Lane. Karimi was arrested at the scene.
His account to the police was that the other man had been ahead of him at a junction, and that he thought the man was using a mobile phone. Both missed a green light. He was annoyed, sounded the horn, and the fight followed. He had wanted to sort it out like a man and had not meant to fight. On the chase, he wanted to catch the other man so the man did not get away with hitting him. He has no previous convictions. He denied meaning to ram the car the second time, and put that impact down to losing control of the brakes. He described his behaviour as "classless, uneducated and very stupid".
The prosecution dropped an earlier charge of attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm.
Mitigation
Matthew Cullen, defending, told the court that Karimi had flagged the police down, that the remorse was clear, and that he was to an extent the primary carer for dependant relatives. The driving was not minimised, by counsel or by the Probation Service.
"He does not, through me or the Probation Service, seek to minimise this particular, shocking episode of driving. However, the fact that it is isolated, using the phrase the probation adopted, situational, and a phrase I advance on his behalf, a one-off episode of behaviour, is relevant to his culpability, but more importantly his long term risk.
"This is an individual who has maintained a long term marriage with parental responsibilities. He can, and has done for 36 years, act as a functioning member of society, also a positively contributing member of society.
"He is not an individual who went out this day intending to commit any sort of criminal offence. The evidence is from his own dashcam footage. It shows that this was an irrational, last minute, panic driven decision which is out of character."
Counsel set out a long employment history as a taxi driver. Karimi told him of a 12-year no-claims bonus and of having driven more than two million miles. Both figures are Karimi's. He spoke of treating the job as important, and of helping members of the public. The likely loss of that work was described as his own fault, and as a punishment in itself. He is the breadwinner for his partner and his son, and he came to this country as an unsupported teenager. On that account, he cannot continue driving taxis.
Sentencing remarks
Judge Stuart Driver KC called the driving disgraceful.
"The details establish that it was, in law, dangerous, in reality, very dangerous indeed. After a dispute, in a temper, you used your car to chase another vehicle. And so, both vehicles drove for a few minutes over the speed limit, across speed bumps on the wrong side of the road, through a red light, through give way lines, into the path of oncoming vehicles, all of this in broad daylight through residential streets, past a number of pedestrians and past many other cars and bicycles. One car narrowly avoided a collision.
"During this, you deliberately rammed your vehicle into the back of the other car three times. The last collision occurred a moment after the other driver got through his car door. He could easily have been caused very serious injury.
"It was a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road and a disregard for the risk of danger for others. Although not prolonged, it was persistent and a deliberate course of dangerous driving. It was obviously a highly dangerous manoeuvre, and it is comparable with racing or competitive driving against another vehicle because you chased it nose to tail.
"In mitigation, there was some provocation here. The other man was aggressive towards you in what is always described as a road rage incident. You are of previous good character. You have a good employment record and a good driving record, and the consequence of your conviction is that you will inevitably lose your job. You assisted the police by flagging them down, and you are a family man with a dependant child.
"I believe you deserve to go to prison for this, but there are no exceptional circumstances. Therefore, legislation means that the sentence must be suspended.
"For 12 months, you must stay out of trouble and do what the Probation Service say. If you fail, you will be brought back here, have no doubt. If I see you again, you will go immediately to prison. You know what you have got to do. If you don't do it, you will be seeing me again and you will be going to prison."
Court lists
HMCTS daily cause lists, as collected by Open Court Data, record Mr Hawkar Karimi under reference 2500131360. He was listed at Sefton Magistrates' Court at 10am on 10, 16, 18 and 23 June 2026, and at Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates' Court at 10am on 12, 15 and 22 September 2026. Those entries do not give a charge, a plea or a result, and they do not show the Crown Court hearing on 20 October. The admission and the sentence come from the Echo's report.