A 22-year-old man killed in a motorbike crash is thought to have hit a bump in the road before coming off his friend's bike - which an inquest heard was in fact stolen.

Kieran Ingram died at the scene in Park Pale, Shorne, which runs next to the M2 near Junction 1 between Strood and Gravesend, on June 8.

The coroner heard the road was used only by traffic going to Rochester and Cobham Park Golf Club or to the the Harlex Haulage company depot at the end of the lane.

Mr Ingram, from New Road, Cliffe, had gone there with a friend who "owned" the grey Yamaha motorbike.

Although when police investigated the machine after the crash, they found it had earlier been stolen from Sidcup.

The steering lock had been smashed and an override mechanism attached to overcome the bike's immobiliser function and the number plate had been removed.

First on the scene after the accident, which happened at around 4pm, was tipper driver David Whitehead, from Cliffe Woods, who had been returning to the Harlex depot at the end of his shift.

He said on his way there he had received a WhatsApp message from his manager, warning there were bikers riding up and down the lane.

He told an inquest at County Hall that such a thing generally happened once or twice a week. He said: "It was just lads being lads."

He described how, on entering Park Pale, he had seen a bike coming towards him on the other side of the road.

The rider had been behaving normally, wearing a helmet, and was not doing "wheelies" or any other stunts - a fact later borne out by examination of his on-board CCTV.

When Mr Whitehead got to the entrance to his depot, at the far end of the no-through road, he had to stop outside while the electric gates opened.

Looking in his mirror he realised there was a motorbike on its side in the road about 15ft behind his lorry.

He got out and quickly saw Mr Ingram lying in the road a short distance from the machine.

He said: "I knew instantly that he was not likely to survive."

At that stage, Mr Ingram was no longer wearing his helmet.

Mr Whitehead told coroner Alan Blunsdon there was a point in the road where the surface sank a little, with two drain covers, followed by a large bump in the road, which he described as being like a speed hump.

He said colleagues had told him it had been there for years and it was bad enough, that he and the other drivers routinely swung around the hump rather than passing over it.

Although he had not seen the accident, Mr Whitehead said: "I suspect that Kieran hit that bump. It's enough to take anyone off a bike."

Mr Ingram's father, Jonathan Ingram, was in court for the hearing, but his mother Charlotte was said to be too distraught to attend.

Mr Ingram has received a call from his son's friend to say there had been an accident and he rushed over at once.

He arrived in time to see the paramedics and a doctor working to try to save Kieran, but after a while they told him his son had gone into cardiac arrest and died.

PC Simon Masterman, a police forensic accident investigator, told the court the Yamaha had several minor defects but none likely to have contributed to the crash.

He found evidence of two places were Mr Ingram had clipped the kerb.

It appeared that the bike had fallen over on the second occasion and both rider and machine had then slid along the grass verge for 27m before bouncing back into the road.

A helmet was found that appeared to have come off during the crash.

Mr Ingram's friend had estimated that the rider was doing about 50mph - the legal limit would have been 60mph - in which case Mr Ingram had just over one second to stabilise his machine after the first strike with the kerb before hitting it again.

A post mortem revealed that Mr Ingram had not consumed and drugs or alcohol, but he did not have a licence to drive the motorbike and was not displaying L-plates.

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In addition a sign at the entrance to Park Pale prohibited all traffic except vehicles accessing the golf club or Harlex.

Det Sgt Peter Grieves told the coroner Mr Ingram's friend had appeared in magistrates court to face a number of criminal charges arising from the incident.

The coroner also asked whether the police would routinely report matters such as the bump in the road to the highways authority following an accident.

DS Grieves confirmed there was a standard mechanism for doing so, but he also pledged to personally ensure the matter was reported to KCC.

'He wasn’t a biker but he always loved a thrill which is probably the reason he was on the bike'

Mr Blunsdon ruled Mr Ingram's death was the result of a road traffic collision.

Following his death, his mum Charlotte Ingram said: "Our hearts were shattered when our beautiful boy was involved in a horrific motorbike accident.

"Kieran was only 22 but lived life to full, he wasn’t a biker but he always loved a thrill which is probably the reason he was on the bike."

Asked about the safety of the road, a Kent County Council spokesman said: “We carry out regular checks of all our roads and have visited Park Pale twice this year, with no obvious signs of a bump or depression that would require a maintenance intervention in line with our risk-based approach.

“As with any serious road traffic collision we will work with Kent Police to address safety related faults, if any are identified.

“Members of the public are also able to log concerns via our fault reporting tool at Kent.gov.uk/highways.”