Driver to stand trial for death crash

A driver accused of causing the death of a car passenger in an accident while travelling to a wake will stand trial later this year.

Veronica Bepe, 48, denied causing death by careless driving when she appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on Tuesday.

Nurse and mother-of-two Mildred Matete Hlabi, 43, suffered multiple injuries in a collision with a van in Seven Mile Lane, East Peckham, near Maidstone, on December 13 2017.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Bepe, of St Anne’s Road, Ashford, will stand trial on July 1. Bail was continued.

Mrs Matete Hlabi, of Beaver Road, Ashford, had worked at the William Harvey Hospital and care homes in the town and was a deaconess at Fountain Church, near Leacon Road.

She worked as a nurse at Park View Care Centre in Kingsnorth after moving from Zimbabwe to Godinton Road in 2004.

She later lived in Church Road in Willesborough and joined Ashford Nursing Home in Hythe Road. Last year, she moved to private KIMS Hospital in Maidstone. A born-again Christian, Mrs Matete Hlabi, from Harare, was a leading figure at the Fountain Church. About 700 people attended her funeral there last month.

Her 18-year-old son, Leroy, plays for Gillingham’s youth team as a striker and her daughter, Lenuecha, 25, is studying at university.

Mrs Matete Hlabi was a front seat passenger in a Toyota Urban Cruiser going to a wake in Tunbridge Wells at the time of the accident.