FRENCH police are investigating the cause of an accident which claimed the life of a former Kent businessman. Bill Spears, whose family owned Conyer Marine, near Faversham, for many years, died as he drove his daughter, Phillippa, to their new home on the west coast of France.

Their Peugoet crashed into the parapet of a bridge, ran down an embankment and plunged into a river. Mr Spears was killed instantly but Phillippa, 14, was thrown clear. She sustained cuts and bruises and has now been released from a French hospital.

French police have been looking at the crash site but say the cause of the accident, which happened two weeks before Mr Spears' 46th birthday, is still a mystery.

Mr Spears and his brother Ted ran a company called Bay Class Yachts, which was based at Conyer boatyard and constructed custom-built luxury steel yachts. The company, which exhibited at the Earls Court and Southampton Boat Shows, was internationally recognised for the quality of its work, but was hit by the recession.

Mr Spears left boat-building and became a professional arbitrator resolving civil disputes, setting up his own business, Legal Options Ltd, at Green Street, Teynham. Mr Spears and his wife Lorna were childhood sweethearts, and first met when Mrs Spears was a pupil at Highsted Grammar School and her husband a student at Borden Grammar School at Sittingbourne.

Until about 10 years ago the couple lived in Conyer. They moved to Lynsted Lane, Lynsted, then last year emigrated with their two youngest children to La Chapelle Thireuil in France. Mr Spears became a partner in a successful boat-painting business at La Rochelle on the west coast.

Their 18-year-old daughter Elinor is a pupil at Highsted Grammar. She and her older brothers, Evan, 22, and Stewart, 20, have travelled to France to be with their mother, sister Phillippa and 12-year-old brother Ed.

Chris Laming, a friend since childhood, said: "Bill will be sadly missed by an enormous number of people in Swale. Business contacts, family and friends will all miss his indefatigable style, boundless energy, zest for life and an enormously big heart."

The date of the funeral has yet to be fixed. Mr Spears will be buried, at his own request, in the churchyard of Teynham church where he and Lorna were married and where both sang in the choir.