‘Forgive me’ plea from the dock

A churchgoer made a plea for forgiveness in a courtroom for killing her Christian “sister” in a tragic car crash.

Veronica Bepe escaped an immediate jail sentence after being convicted of causing the death of Mildred Matete, who had worked at the William Harvey Hospital and various care homes in Ashford.

But Bepe, a 48-year-old motherof-two, was criticised for lying to the court about a previous conviction.

Judge Adele Williams said Bepe hadn’t been truthful when she failed to reveal details of a previous motoring conviction.

She was fined for failing to say who was driving her car when it was involved in a series of crashes.

Bepe was on her way to a wake in Tunbridge Wells and was with her two friends in her Toyota Urban Cruiser.

She was following sat-nav directions on the mobile phone of victim Mildred, of Beaver Road, when she got lost.

At a junction with Seven Mile Lane in East Peckham, she drove across the paths of an oncoming Renault traffic van and a Nissan Micra travelling in opposite directions, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

Judge Williams told Bepe - a widow - she had become impatient because of the amount of traffic and had misjudged the speed of one of the vehicles and failed to see the other.

Mrs Matete, a 43- year- old church deaconess at Fountain Church in Ashford, died of multiple injuries after the van collided with the passenger side of Bepe’s Toyota.

The pair and another women were travelling on December 13 2017. Bepe pulled out of Martins Lane onto the A228 and her vehicle was first hit by the van then collided with the Micra.

The Toyota struck the kerb and rolled onto its roof.

Bepe, of St Anne’s Road, South Ashford, was given an eightmonth jail sentence suspended for two years.

She will carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work and told she had to remain indoors between 9pm and 7am for the next four months.

She was given a four-year driving ban and warned not to tell lies again in court.