A driver has been jailed for mowing down a pedestrian after a violent confrontation at a kebab shop.

Niall Grant drove at victim Wajeeh Izharuddin, who a suffered life-threatening bleed on his brain after being hurled onto the bonnet and flung off the car into metal railings.

Grant had fetched his car after an argument at the kebab shop in Newton Abbot and followed a group of three men including Mr Izharuddin through the streets.

He found them outside a car showroom on The Avenue where he drove at Mr Izharuddin, catching him with the front of the car.

Grant was driving without lights and he hit a second member of the group with a glancing blow as he drove off without stopping and with his windscreen shattered.

He had been drinking vodka and Red Bull and alcopops at a club before the incident but police were unable to establish how drunk he was because he was not traced until he handed himself in the next day.

Mr Izharuddin needed emergency treatment in the neurosurgery unit of Derriford Hospital in Plymouth where he was treated for internal bleeding inside his skull, and a broken collar bone.

He still suffers headaches and has a slight stammer more than two years after the attack.

Grant, aged 21, of Oakland Road, Newton Abbot, admitted causing grievous bodily and dangerous driving and was jailed for two years and six months by Judge Erik Salomonsen at Exeter Crown Court. He was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to take an extended re-test.

The judge told him:’You struck Mr Izharuddin with the front of the car and put him over the bonnet onto the windscreen, from where he was thrown onto railings.

’He suffered life-threatening injuries in the form of a bleed on the brain and fortunately was discharged from hospital after treatment.

’You did not stop. Instead, you drove on at 30 mph, no doubt in panic and dumped the car. Instead of going home or to the police or calling for first aid for your victim, you made yourself scarce.

’The aggravating features are the presence of alcohol, making off without stopping. In you favour, you are clearly remorseful, of good character, and there was a lack of pre meditation.

’This is simply not a case for a suspended sentence. You drove a car at a pedestrian at 30 mph and the court must send a message that this is completely unacceptable behaviour."

Mr Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said there was a violent argument between two groups of men who had been in a club in Newton Abbot together before they both met again at Ali’s Kebab House some time after 2.30am on August 24, 2014.

Mr Izharuddin was with two friends called Rhys Goldring and William Milton, who fled from the kebab shop and armed themselves with pieces of wood and metal during a short confrontation.

They then ran away and CCTV showed them walking through Newton Abbot until they were outside the Volkswagen showroom, where Grant’s car hit Mr Izharuddin and nudged Mr Milton.

A police expert worked out that Grant would have been able to see Mr Izharuddin walking just off the pavement from a distance of 80 metres and had veered round a road sign before pulling back towards the kerb and hitting him.

Grant claimed it was an accident and that Mr Izharuddin had been walking in the road but admitted to police he had drunk three or four vodkas and a couple of alcopops.

He carried on denying any responsibility until the morning of his trial by which time the police had spent £40,000 preparing the case, which was codenamed Operation Balcony.

Mr Martin Salloway, mitigating, said Grant had intended to scare rather than hit the three men and acted because he was frightened by the previous confrontation in the kebab shop.

He said:’This was not a planned offence. He came across the group and decided to give them a scare. It was not a sustained assault, the victim was not particularly vulnerable and it was not motivated by racial antagonism.

’There was no intention to cause harm at all. He is a hard-working family man of positive good character. He was 18 at the time and was confronted by men with weapons.

’He was trying to get away because he is scared. It was stupid, dangerous and reckless.’