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Additional reporting by Lydia Chantler-Hicks
A speeding Subway boss smoked cannabis before killing a Covid test courier in a hit-and-run outside a care home days before Christmas.
Donna Grant, of Folkestone, was today handed four years after “callously” leaving the cherished father-of-four to “die on a dark winter night all alone.”
Anthony Akpeki’s family paid homage to their “solid rock foundation, best friend and advisor,” during the sentencing hearing at Canterbury Crown Court today.
Previously, Grant pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at the same court but denied having smoked cannabis before the crash.
The mother-of-one also argued she was unaware she hit a person, believing she struck an object or animal.
But Canterbury’s most senior judge on Thursday ruled Grant “had consumed cannabis” before the crash and drove away realising she had “potentially struck a person.”
Grant struck Covid test delivery driver Mr Akpeki, 59, in the dark, leaving a passer-by to discover his body which had been hurled into a skip.
She fled the scene in Dover to her Folkestone home in her wrecked Ford Focus, with a smashed windscreen, dented roof and broken lamp.
The tragedy unfolded at about 9.15pm on the evening of December 17, 2020.
Mr Akpeki had just picked up Covid test kits from Hillbrow care home in Crabble Hill, when Grant struck him at 45mph.
The court heard when Mr Akpeki left the care home moments before his death, he told staff: “You’re all doing a brilliant job, I’m very proud to work for you all.
“I hope you stay safe and have a great Christmas.”
But as he carried goods towards his van in Crabble Hill, Grant was driving 15mph above the 30mph speed limit while under the influence of cannabis.
She struck him directly outside Hillbrow on a stretch of road without a pavement, propelling his body into the carehome’s skip, Canterbury Crown Court heard.
Skye Rowe, a Hillbrow care worker, discovered Mr Akpeki’s body at 9.20pm and alerted the authorities.
Medics fought to revive Mr Akpeki, but he was pronounced dead at the scene - his cause of death later recorded as multiple injuries.
Following the crash Grant immediately drove her damaged grey hatchback - which had a cracked windscreen and broken headlamp - to her home in Fairway Avenue.
While there, she sent WhatsApp messages to area managers showing the damage, claiming she hit a “green box,” the prosecution said.
She would later make searches on her phone for the phrases ‘hit-and-run Dover’ and ‘body found in Dover,’ said prosecutor Nina Ellin.
The next day, Grant drove the vehicle with its dented roof, cracked windscreen and broken headlamp to her workplace at the West Park Farm North Retail Park, Folkestone.
From there, she told insurers over the phone she hit a lamppost and needed repairs, the court heard.
But when the vehicle recovery driver met Grant he had doubts over the cause of the damage, the court heard.
“I thought this isn't just a post - but I didn't put two and two together at the time,” he told the court in a statement.
“She was definitely panicking, she said she crashed into a post and that was it.”
He said Grant repeatedly asked if the car was a ‘write-off’ and the interior “stank of cannabis.”
There was “cannabis scattered all over the car,” he added.
After he towed the vehicle away the police were informed and Grant was arrested. A test revealed she had 3.2 micrograms of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, per litre of blood. The legal limit is two micrograms.
In an interview, Grant said she believed she hit a British Telecom box or bollard, or “an animal of some sort.”
She said she stopped and checked the rear view mirror but didn’t exit the car “because I was scared.”
However a police probe into the satellite navigation system found the vehicle only slowed down after the collision, rather than stopping.
Defending her decision not to stop, Grant said she “didn’t think it was a human being” she had hit, instead thinking it may have been an animal or something thrown at her car.
“It was dark,” she said. “[I felt] vulnerable. I’m a widow - I wanted to get home to my daughter. It was December.
“I was scared. I was scared of an animal, somebody throwing bricks. It was pitch black.”
She said the impact was “like white paint being thrown at my windscreen” or “like lightning shattering glass”.
“I didn’t think it was a human being,” she added.
She denies she had been “lying” when she told police she stopped the car, arguing she was in shock after being informed she had hit a person.
“I can’t even recall what police station I was in that day,” she said. “To be told you’ve killed someone, that’s traumatising.
“It has affected my life, very much so,” she added, her voice breaking. “I didn’t see a gentleman. And I’m so sorry.”
Grant told detectives a cannabis grinder found in her car following her arrest belonged to Subway colleagues, who she allowed to smoke the drug inside her vehicle.
Two Subway employees took the stand, each of them claiming they believed they had personally left the grinder and marijuana in her car.
Mr Akpeki’s wife Ufuoma, who he would refer to as Sunshine, called him: “My best friend - my advisor.
“My life changed when the police came ringing my doorbell and gave me the sad news of Tony being killed - our lives crumbled.
“We hold onto the beautiful memories as a family and keep his life alive in our hearts,” she said.
Family member Tesse told how Mr Akpeki from a young age helped raise his siblings through the care system, in Nazareth Lodge, Belfast, during the Troubles.
And when he came of age he would donate his time to London’s Met Police as a special constable for eight years.
The civil servant of 18 years would serve at Peckham Job Centre as a supervisor, becoming a union representative.
Meanwhile Mr Akpeki would divide his time volunteering for various worthy causes, fundraise to help improve children’s education, and play a central role in the church.
“Tony did not just walk through life, he bounced through difficulties,” she explained.
Explaining Mr Akpeki worked as a courier driver throughout the Covid 19 pandemic, she said: “While millions were running from danger Tony ran towards it.
“He brought smiles to the faces of those serving care home residents.
“He had just wished them a Merry Christmas, just a few minutes later he was left to die on a dark winter night, all alone.”
John, his brother, called Mr Akpeki the “life and joy” and “the funniest and most compassionate man there ever was.”
“Miss Grant took from me a brother that cannot be replaced and a friend who cannot be compared,” he added.
In statements read in court, his children spoke of their heartbreak: “All I want to ask the lady is why were you speeding, why did you kill my dad?”
Another said: “He’s not here to teach me how to shave my beard, he’s not here to take me to football trials as he promised, because his life was snatched from us.”
“Since the death of my father my life has not been the same, I have not been the same.
“(I have) lost the will to continue to live.”
Sentencing today, Judge Simon James said: “Regrettably, if I have learned anything from well over a decade as a judge, it is that terrible things can happen to good people and good people can do bad things.
“Mr Akpeki was a cherished husband, a much loved father, a caring and supportive brother and very well respected member of his community. “
He told Grant if she had not been driving dangerously Mr Akpeki would “still be with his family.
“Your speed was such that he had no real chance and was struck and killed by someone who was later to be discovered to have cannabis in their blood system well above that permitted.
“Exactly what impact it had on your driving and decision making we may well never know, but the presence of drugs in your blood system must be considered a significant aggravating feature.
“As, in addition, must the fact that having collided with a pedestrian, you failed to stop and drove from the scene.”
The judge said he had "no doubt, having read about your character and life from those who know and love you, that you have the capacity to have genuine empathy for those who have spoken with such dignity and passion about their grief and loss during this hearing."
The court heard Grant was handed a community order in January 2020 for driving while disqualified and without insurance. She also received a seven month driving ban.
Mitigating, her barrister read statements from her family and friends who referred to Grant as a "truly devoted" mum who cares for her own ailing mother.
In a letter to the judge she described her "devastation and heartbreak," adding she must "accept consequences for the sentence served."
*An earlier version of this story stated Grant had been banned from driving at the time of Mr Akpeki's death. The ban had come to an end five months before.
