Giau Van Nguyen sentenced after causing the death of Anthanasious Frangis

An Essendon man who drove into a 78-year-old grandfather who was walking home from his local soccer club, leaving him for dead has copped his punishment.

St Albans hit-run victim Anthanasious Frangis, 78, who volunteered at the Westvale Soccer Club.

A vision-impaired motorist, who hit a pedestrian while he was walking home, fled the scene of the crash leaving the 78-year-old dying on the side of the road, will spend only a few months behind bars.

Giau Van Nguyen, 67, of Essendon, was sentenced to four months’ jail after earlier pleading guilty in the County Court to charges of failing to stop after a motor vehicle accident and failing to render assistance with a summary charge of careless driving.

Nguyen hit Anthanasious Frangis when he was crossing Main Rd East in St Albans about 9pm on May 8, 2019, but drove off after braking for only a “split second”.

Mr Frangis was walking home from his local soccer club after volunteering when he was struck and thrown onto the bonnet of Nguyen’s car before he skidded along the road.

Paramedics arrived at the scene and performed CPR on Mr Frangis, but he was unable to be revived.

The next morning Nguyen took his car — which had extensive damage to the passenger-side windscreen — to be repaired and told mechanics he didn’t know how the damage had been caused.

“I just woke up in the morning and it was like this,” he told the mechanics.

The mechanics reported the damaged car to police and Nguyen was arrested when he returned to collect his vehicle.

Later, he told police Mr Frangis had come out of nowhere and had no time to veer or brake to avoid the impact.

When asked why he didn’t stop, the father of four said he was scared, in shock and just drove home.

Nguyen denied he had issues seeing when driving at night but disclosed he had laser eye surgery on one eye a couple of years ago which recovered about 50 per cent of his sight.

The Vietnamese born-and-raised father lost a son in 2013 after he was “tragically murdered” and developed severe depression and PTSD.

Nguyen’s lawyer submitted his response to flee the scene was triggered by his disorder, but he was “deeply remorseful” for his actions.

In sentencing him, Judge Simon Moglia took into account his mental conditions and said a term of imprisonment would likely be “detrimental to his mental health”.

“I accept you are truly sorry for your actions and the role you played in the tragic death of Mr Fangis,” he said.

The judge also added Nguyen would likely experience language and communication difficulties in prison.

Nguyen was sentenced with conviction to four months behind bars on charge one, and three months on charge two to be served concurrently.

Nguyen was fined $200 with conviction on the summary charge of careless driving.

Judge Moglia also handed down a 12-month community corrections order on the condition Nguyen engages in mental health treatment and offending behaviour programs.

Nguyen lost his licence for four years.