Boat death man blamed for killing couple

A man who died in a speedboat accident was to blame for the deaths of an elderly couple in a horror road accident, an inquest has heard.

Giovanni Coppolaro, 85, and wife Maria, 83, died in July 2015 when Sandy Hamilton overtook a lorry at a bend and hit the car they were in on the A73 at Newhouse, Lanarkshire. Their son Gennaro, 56, who was driving, survived.

Hamilton, 35, was due to face trial charged with causing death by dangerous driving but he died, along with his cousin Kevin Mckinlay, 46, in a speedboat accident in May.

Hamilton and Mckinlay, suspected puppy smugglers, launched the boat from Port Logan on the Galloway coast and their bodies were found in the water the following day.

The Coppolaros were in Scotland for a funeral when the crash happened.