A SCUBA diver suffering from lung disease died after getting into difficulties in a North Yorkshire lake, an inquest heard today (Tuesday, April 5).

Tony Adams, 58, from Norton, was diving with the Atlantis 449 diving club at Ellerton Lake, Scorton, near Catterick on May 21 last year - but some of his equipment was faulty, his suit failed to inflate to bring him back to the surface, and the weight belt he was wearing was too heavy.

That, combined with his ill health and "inadequate" checks before the dive, led to him being underwater without oxygen for so long that he suffered brain damage.

The inquest heard he started to struggle to stay buoyant during the 6.5m-depth dive, and his feet kept floating upwards. His fellow divers Henry Durham and Peter Thomas aborted the dive, but Mr Adams did not seem to respond.

After several attempts to get him to the surface safely with his suit failing to inflate, his breathing regulator coming out of his mouth, and one of his fins being tangled in some rope, they brought him up and to the shore.

Despite successful CPR from dive supervisor John Bennett and then an ambulance crew, he died a week later in James Cook University Hospital after being declared brain dead.

His wife of over 30 years, Wendy, told the inquest at Teesside Coroner's Court that on the day of the dive, he had become severely out of breath while on a short walk to the next village.

He had been complaining about constant chest pain and shortness of breath for several months and had been referred to the lung clinic for tests.

But Mr Adams was "stubborn", she said, and did not want to have to give up diving.

He did not tell the Norton-based dive club, which used Ellerton Lake for its open water dives, about the lung problems.

A post mortem examination revealed that he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a serious long-term lung disease.

Process worker Mr Adams, who had only been diving for a year, borrowed Mr Bennett's equipment the day of the accident.

The double cylinder had one faulty gauge, which he was warned not to use. Mr Bennett said he should have done more to check Mr Adams' equipment before the dive but said checks were done.

Acting coroner Claire Bailey said: "I am satisfied that there were not sufficient checks."

She said if the checks had been carried out then the problems with equipment would have been discovered.

Recording a narrative verdict, she said: "On 21st May, 2015, Mr Adams was scuba diving at Ellerton Lake. During the dive he found himself in difficulties.

"His fellow divers tried to assist and succeeded in returning him to the shore where first aid was administered. He was taken to James Cook hospital where he died."