A MINIBUS driver convicted of causing the death of a motorcyclist has been told he faces jail after he failed to disclose his conviction to insurers.

In July 2013 Henry Hamilton was given a suspended prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of causing death by careless driving.

Two years earlier Hamilton, of Masefield Drive, Farnworth, had been driving his minibus on Manchester Road, Kearsley, when he turned right into the path of motorcyclist Neil Cooper.

Mr Cooper, a 52-year-old married father of two, was killed.

But in a separate case at Bolton Crown Court on Friday, Sarah Johnson, prosecuting, told how 52-year-old Hamilton had failed to disclose his convictions to the trade insurers for his business Dunne’s Travel.

Miss Johnson revealed how, when his insurance was due for renewal just 10 days after the fatality, Hamilton failed to disclose he was facing criminal proceedings over it and continued the fraud at subsequent annual renewals.

But police began to investigate him after an Inveco car transporter, in which he was a front seat passenger, was stopped on February 14 this year on Buckley Lane, New Bury.

He told officers he had a trade insurance policy which covered the driver Neil Preston.

Checks revealed Hamilton was a disqualified driver and his daughter, Nicola Dunne, was initially arrested after he alleged at first that she was the policy holder.

She was subsequently released without charge when this was found to be incorrect.

Miss Johnson told the court that, although insurance companies say they would have covered him prior to the conviction, his annual premiums, which ranged from £1,273 to £1,791, would have tripled.

Any policy after the conviction was void.

“No insurance company would have covered him,” she said.

In 2012 Hamilton had attempted to make a claim for damage to a Mondeo, which he subsequently withdrew. But in March 2013 insurers paid out £4,368 in settlement of a claim involving another vehicle.

Hamilton previously pleaded guilty to fraud, breaching the previously imposed suspended sentence.

Leila Ghahhary, defending, appealed to Recorder Michael Blakey not to jail Hamilton, stressing that he has sole responsibility for a 16-year-old daughter and he has recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Recorder Blakey adjourned sentence until October 23 to allow a report to be prepared into Hamilton’s family circumstances.

But he warned the defendant: “Please be under no illusion that these offences are very serious.

“The probability is that you will receive an immediate custodial sentence.”