A coach driver who got married while still wed to his first wife has been jailed.

Arthur Ballard, 44, claimed he thought he was divorced when he married Susan Winter at Eastbourne Town Hall. But Ballard never checked to see if the marriage to his first wife had been legally dissolved.

At Lewes Crown Court, Ballard denied a charge of bigamy but the jury took just 15 minutes to consider its verdict and find him guilty.

Ballard, of Castleford Avenue, Grimsby, who now lives with his first wife, told the court: "I just assumed I was divorced."

During the trial the jury was told he married Ms Winter, a grandmother, at Eastbourne register office in June 2003 but he had never got a divorce from his first wife, Jill, a divorcee, who he married in September 1999.

He walked out on her months after the wedding and went to London, where he met Ms Winter and later proposed.

Ballard told the court he had heard from friends his first wife had divorced him. He said when he married Ms Winter he stated he was a bachelor on the marriage certificate because he did not have the official documents to prove he was divorced.

But 16 months after he married Ms Winter, who had been divorced twice before, he walked out on her and ended up back with Jill in Grimsby. Ms Winter heard rumours Ballard had been married before and had not divorced.

After tracing his family she contacted police. During the trial Ms Winter told the jury she had no idea Ballard had another wife.

The court was told she had to pay £1,000 in legal fees to try to get the marriage annulled and felt embarrassed and deceived by his behaviour.

Ballard's current wife told the jury she believed she was divorced and had gone out celebrating but she had failed to sign an official document and the marriage had never been dissolved.

She said when Ballard returned to live with her he never mentioned he had got married in Eastbourne and the first she knew about his other wife was when police arrived on her doorstep to arrest him.

Ballard was jailed for a total of nine months. He was sentenced to five months for bigamy plus four months for contempt of court after he admitted altering two medical certificates to try to get the trial delayed.