{"id":721559,"date":"2026-07-31T20:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721559\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:21:14","slug":"matraxhiu-jailed-over-gillingham-pensioner-hit-and-run-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721559\/","title":{"rendered":"Matraxhiu jailed over Gillingham pensioner hit and run death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A driver who struck an 89-year-old man and carried him on the roof of his car for almost a mile before fleeing the scene has been jailed for nine years and 10 months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Albert Matraxhiu, 29, was travelling at 76mph in a 40mph zone when he hit pensioner Tom Wallace at a crossing on the A289 Gads Hill in Gillingham on 29 December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The retired dental surgeon and great-grandfather fell from the grey Mercedes in Grange Road, where he was later pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sentencing Matraxhiu at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday, Judge Julian Smith said of Mr Wallace: &#8220;His legacy is his family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Matraxhiu, of Orange Hill Road, Edgware, had admitted causing death by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was also disqualified from driving and must serve a further six-year ban after his release before taking an extended re-test.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The court heard Matraxhiu and passenger Erald Paci abandoned the vehicle before leaving the area on foot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The pair later removed and disposed of the car&#8217;s number plates, their clothing and their phones, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Matraxhiu handed himself in the day after the crash following a police appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver who struck an 89-year-old man and carried him on the roof of his car for almost&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-721559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}