A DRIVER who caused the death of teenager Jade Clark arranged for his car to be repaired in a bid to evade justice, a court heard.

Health and safety executive Brian Hampton is accused of perverting the course of justice by paying for his Volvo XC90 to be repaired following the collision on the A31 on February 24 this year, which caused 16-year-old Jade’s fatal injuries.

Prosecutor Simon Jones told Bournemouth Crown Court that Jade’s moped was “swallowed up and pushed along the carriageway” by Hampton’s car.

“Jade fell into the middle of the carriageway,” he said.

“The defendant drove around her. That left her exposed to the fast moving traffic.”

He said other motorists stopped at the scene but Hampton had already driven off.

Hampton, 58, has already pleaded guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court to causing death by careless driving, and driving whilst disqualified and without insurance on February 24 and 25.

Mr Jones said: “The prosecution’s case is the defendant knew full well that he had, at the very least, been involved in a serious road traffic collision.

“It was his duty to stop. What the defendant did was to seek to evade justice and pervert the course of justice by arranging for the damage to his vehicle to be subsequently repaired.”

Mr Jones said Hampton lied to his wife that his car was broken down the morning after the crash, and checked into a Holiday Inn in Kent on the following two nights.

On Wednesday, February 27, Hampton took the car to a garage where he told staff he had hit a deer, but they were suspicious as there was neither blood nor fur on the front, the court heard. The repairs, costing £4,316, included the bonnet, bumper, grill assembly and radiator.

The jury saw CCTV footage of Hampton arriving at the Holes Bay Premier Inn on the night of February 24 and examining the front of his car in the car park, and the following afternoon spending five minutes attempting to open the bonnet.

CCTV footage the prosecution played to the jury of Brian Hampton looking at his car the morning after the accident while it was parked at the Premier Inn on Holes Bay Road in Poole.

Hampton, a health and safety project manager for Signalling Solutions since 2009, had been off work ill between July and December 2012, and was on a phased-work programme.

Hampton, of Hornash Lane in Shadoxhurst, near Ashford, Kent, denies perverting the course of justice. The trial continues.