A COMPANY director has been hit with a £150,000 court bill after staging a fake road accident with a cross-country running pal.

Stuart Gentry, 40, director of a solar energy company, claimed his Range Rover was struck by another car at the junction between Folly Farm and the A399 near Basingstoke on March 17, 2013.

The driver of the other vehicle, Lee Miller, said he had swerved to avoid a deer and smashed into Gentry’s car, writing off both vehicles.

Gentry later launched a £75,000 insurance claim, seeking damages for whiplash injuries, the write-off of his car and the cost of hiring a replacement.

He claimed he did not know Miller, but insurance investigators eventually found the pair were actually Facebook friends and in fact had known each other for some years and competed together in cross-country running events, a judge said.

The two men had staged the accident so that Gentry could claim compensation for a car which had actually been damaged long before, said Mr Justice Teare at a High Court hearing on January 18.

Gentry, of Basingstoke, had then put forward an “elaborate lie” about not previously knowing Miller “in circumstances where the collision had been staged”.

Handing him a nine-month jail term, suspended for two years, and ordering him to pay around £20,000 in damages to the insurer, Justice Tearea said Gentry was guilty of a “serious” contempt of court.

He added: “Of course, it is possible for two friends to suffer a collision when driving their respective cars. It would however be a striking and unlikely coincidence.

“The only credible explanation for the steps both drivers took to hide their friendship is that they knew that it was a staged collision and that to reveal that they were friends would give the game away.”

On top of the damages, Gentry was also ordered to pay the legal costs of the case - which lawyers expect will take his bill to more than £150,000.

After the fake accident, claims were made by both men and a passenger in Gentry’s car, with £14,000 paid out to Gentry for the value of his written-off vehicle.

However, other payments were halted after the insurer - UK Insurance Ltd - became suspicious of the relationship between the two men.

In a statement, Gentry claimed he had spoken to Miller at the scene and that they then became friends after Miller told him of the death of his infant son, claiming they had gone on to run together in races, raising money for a cot death charity.

But the judge said online inquiries revealed they had known each other for some time and even ran together in a race the day before the alleged smash.

Defending a court claim of “deceit” brought by the insurer, Gentry said he lied about not knowing Miller because he did not want to slow down his “genuine” claim. However, Mr Justice Teare said: “I am persuaded that the accident was staged.

“If a motive is required it is that Mr Gentry wished to recover something in respect of substantial damage carried by his car - and which had led to it being little used in the previous year - and, for whatever reason, was unable to recover from his own insurers in respect of that damage.

“Mr Miller was willing to assist his friend because his vehicle was very old and worth very little.”

The judge said Miller, did not appear in court to put forward his side and put forward his side of the story, had not been traced.