Albanian man jailed for manslaughter of boss in Southampton in 2006
Arjan Balla had been living in the UK under a different identity
An Albanian man has been jailed more than 17 years after he caused a severe brain injury that eventually killed his boss after he returned to the UK using a different name.
Arjan Balla chased down and attacked businessman Anastassios Delis in 2006 at a building site in Queensway in Southampton.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Mr Delis struck his head on the concrete floor and never regained consciousness.
Moments before the assault, Mr Delis had said that he feared that Balla was "going to kill" him.
He was left in a permanent vegetative state until his death in 2017 aged 68.
A CPS spokesman said that Balla at the time was using the name Tahir Karaj and he pleaded guilty to a charge of grievous bodily harm.
He was sentenced in 2007 to three years' imprisonment, of which he served one year before he was deported to his native Albania.
Following Mr Delis' death, the CPS authorised the charge of manslaughter against Balla and inquiries led the prosecutors to uncover his real identity.
The spokesman explained: "The difficulty faced by the prosecution was that during Balla's initial stay in the UK he was living under a false identity in order to obtain employment.
"Under the name Tahir Karaj, Balla hid his true identity from UK authorities throughout the initial criminal investigation, his imprisonment and ultimate deportation.
"This meant that in 2019, when consent was granted for the CPS' Wessex Complex Casework Unit to charge 'Karaj', inquiries with the Albanian authorities through Interpol to locate him were initially unsuccessful.
"However on January 23, following inquiries by Hampshire Police, National Crime Agency, Interpol and the Albanian authorities, intelligence confirmed that 'Karaj' was in fact Arjan Balla.
"Inquiries also established Balla was booked to return to the UK on a flight to Stanstead Airport just three days later.
"When the plane from Albania landed on January 26, Balla was arrested - with his fingerprints and DNA matching that of the man known as Tahir Karaj previously convicted of the GBH of Mr Delis."
Balla, who is 41 and of Godstone Road in Whyteleafe in Surrey, pleaded to the manslaughter charge and was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court to 12 months' imprisonment.
Anthony Johns, senior crown prosecutor with CPS Wessex, said:
"This was an incredibly tragic case, spanning nearly two decades and involving organisations across the criminal justice system and our international partners in Europe.
"While Mr Delis remained alive for 11 years after the attack he did not regain consciousness, robbing him and his loved ones of a future together.
"Once it became clear that Mr Delis died as a direct result of Balla's actions, we were determined to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and demonstrate that neither time nor evasion will prevent justice being served.
"The strength of our case meant that Balla had no alternative but to plead guilty, sparing the family of Mr Delis the process of a criminal trial.
"They are undoubtedly the living victims of what Balla did that day in 2006, and I hope today's sentence can help them move forward with their lives."