Telford road rage driver who stamped on policeman's head causing permanent hearing loss will serve no extra jail time

Ismail Zafar, aged 31, took a baseball bat out of his car and shouted “do you want some more of this?” at his victim - a father - after knocking him to the ground with punches in Lawley Drive, Telford, two days before Christmas.

However, Zafar is already serving a sentence of more than seven years in jail for arson with recklessness to endanger life, so Shrewsbury Crown Court judge Anthony Warner ordered for his 20-month sentence for the road rage incident to run concurrently. 

That means Zafar will not serve any additional time for the furious attack in broad daylight.

Zafar smirked while sitting below a portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II during his sentencing hearing, which he joined via video link from HMP Highpoint in Newmarket, Suffolk.

The court was told that at around 1.15pm on December 23, 2019, an off-duty firearms officer was driving a Ford in traffic behind a BMW 1 Series, driven by Zafar who had a male passenger in the car.

Zafar and a driver in a Seat Leon were seen “making gestures” at each other out of their car windows before Zafar got out and started to punch him.

The policeman, who was in the court's public gallery for the sentencing exercise and was described as “extremely brave” by prosecutor Suzanne Francis, got out of his car and approached Zafar while he was attacking the Seat driver.