A 30-year-old man who ran up thousands of pounds in gambling debts threw himself beneath the wheels of a coach, an inquest was told.

Ian Sharp stepped out in front of an oncoming bus and when the driver tried to avoid him he dived beneath the wheels at Ito Way on the A2. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

An inquest into his death heard how Mr Sharp, of Livingstone Road, Gillingham, had lost his and his partner’s £4,000 savings on an internet gambling site shortly before his death.

In the days after the heavy loss he took out an £8,000 loan and planned to gamble it and make enough money for him to retire and become a house husband and take care of his pregnant wife. But he lost another £4,000 on the website and became angry.

Everton Foster was at the wheel of his Kings Ferry coach on the A2 on February 18 and described seeing Mr Sharp.

“I looked at him as he was walking quite quickly along the path and he looked at me.

He stepped out in to the near side lane so I braked and moved over to the other lane but he then ran into my path again.

“I then tried to swerve back into the slow lane and I saw the man dive under the bus.”

Deputy coroner Stephen Beck recorded a verdict of suicide at the inquest held at the Municipal Buildings at Gillingham.