LEEDS — A driver who killed her friend in a 143mph crash in a rented Lamborghini and then tried to blame him for it has been jailed for 10 years.
Humaira Batool, 26, of Bradford, was driving a hired Lamborghini Urus on the M62 in West Yorkshire in the early hours of December 21, 2022, when the car left the carriageway between junctions 22 and 23, near Ripponden, hit a barrier, overturned and burst into flames. Her passenger, Mohammed Shaan Hussain, 20, was trapped inside and died at the scene. Batool escaped with burns to about 10 percent of her body and a shattered tibia.
Leeds Crown Court heard that shortly before the crash, at about 4:20 a.m., Batool had swapped seats with Hussain at traffic lights and taken the wheel herself — a swap captured on CCTV. Experts told the jury the car reached speeds of up to 143mph, and the judge found she had driven at more than 120mph for “many miles” on a damp motorway in darkness, passing Stott Hall Farm, the house in the middle of the M62, at about 120mph.
The Blame
Batool’s account was that Hussain had been driving, or that he had reached over and interfered with the controls, pressing something that made the car “surge” forward in the wet. Judge Ray Singh rejected it. Sentencing her, he said Hussain died as a result of her decision to drive the “powerful performance vehicle” at “eye-watering extreme speeds on a damp motorway in darkness,” and that she had “deliberately tried to blame” Hussain, “who for obvious reasons is unable to speak on his own behalf.” “This was a tragic, entirely avoidable death,” the judge said. “Mohammed Shaan Hussain was only 20 years old. He was your friend.”
The court heard Batool had at first claimed she was asleep in the passenger seat while Hussain drove. Prosecutor Christopher Dunn set out the CCTV evidence that put her behind the wheel, and expert evidence rejected the suggestion that the car could have surged to those speeds because a passenger touched the controls. A full police investigation followed the crash, and Batool was charged in January 2024, more than a year after Hussain’s death. She had denied the charge throughout, which is why Hussain’s family had to sit through a trial in September to hear the evidence about the night he died — and hear him blamed for it by the woman who was driving.
A jury convicted Batool in September of causing death by dangerous driving. She was due to be sentenced on Monday but did not attend, saying an endometriosis flare-up had taken her to A&E. The judge treated the absence as an attempt to avoid justice, issued a warrant, and Batool was arrested at Bradford Royal Infirmary and brought to court, where she was sentenced on Tuesday.
Detective Inspector Paul Conroy of West Yorkshire Police’s Major Collision Enquiry Team said the force welcomed the sentence “for the incredibly dangerous driving she engaged in on 21 December 2022.”
As well as the 10-year prison term, Batool was disqualified from driving for 10 years and told she must pass an extended driving test before she can drive again.
The M62 Case — In Short
Humaira Batool, 26, was jailed for 10 years at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday for causing death by dangerous driving. Driving a rented Lamborghini Urus at up to 143mph on the M62 near Ripponden on December 21, 2022, she hit a barrier; the car overturned and caught fire, killing her friend Mohammed Shaan Hussain, 20. CCTV showed Batool had swapped into the driver’s seat; the judge rejected her claim that Hussain made the car surge and said she had deliberately tried to blame a man who could not answer back. She had failed to attend sentencing on Monday and was arrested at Bradford Royal Infirmary. She is banned from driving for 10 years and must pass an extended retest.
Sources: BBC News, November 3, 2026; The Sun, November 3, 2026; West Yorkshire Police statements reported by Greatest Hits Radio, November 3, 2026.
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