Teenager Luke Tiller was riding a motorbike with badly maintained brakes when he failed to negotiate a bend and died after colliding head on with a Land Rover, an inquest heard on Friday.

Assistant deputy Wiltshire coroner David Ridley recorded a verdict of misadventure at the inquest in Salisbury after hearing police reports that Luke, 17, had virtually no front brakes on the Yamaha SR 125 owned by his brother Adam but which he and their father would borrow.

Luke was a student at Andover College and he met his death on a lane on the Wiltshire-Hampshire border near Collingbourne Ducis just two days after starting a work experience placement at the Connaught Estate.

On Wednesday May 14 he had just left work and was heading for his home in Barton Stacy near Winchester, when he lost control of his bike as he rounded a corner in Hungerford Lane at Upper Chute.

The coroner heard that although Mark Melly from Box Farm at Vernham Dean swerved his Land Rover on the nearside verge, Luke crashed into it with his bike going under the truck.

Luke rebounded off the front ending up six feet away at the bottom of a hedge.

Mr Melly said he had been driving at between 20-25mph when he saw the motorbike come around the bend some 15-20 metres away and out of control.

“I got up onto the verge and the motorcycle hit the front of my Land Rover while I was on the verge,” said the farmer.

He said he could detect no signs of life and he was advised by the ambulance control operator to try to resuscitate Luke.

“There was no sign of life and my impression was that he had been killed instantly,” said Mr Melly.

Nurse Helen Weeks who was one of the first on the scene said she could detect no signs of life although she carried out cardiac massage until paramedics arrived and certified that the rider was dead.

Vehicle examiner PC Kevin Fry said there was a fluid leak from the front brake reservoir that would have had a drastic effect on braking and although the Yamaha had been MoT’d in January there was a lack of maintenance.

Pathologist Dr Clare Fuller said death had been due to head injury.