A
husband has claimed Lloyds bank was partly to blame for his wife’s suicide after
it suddenly pulled their overdraft.

Mark Davis says the bank’s actions
helped drive his wife Victoria to throw herself in front of a train earlier this
year.

An inquest into her death heard a £16,000 tax demand was also
hand-delivered to the family home on the morning of her suicide.

The
hearing was told Mrs Davis had battled to juggle her job as company secretary
for the family firm and coping with its debts with being a mother to two young
children.

‘Blissfully happy’: Mark and Victoria Davis. He claims
Lloyds bank was partially to blame for her suicide because it pulled their
overdraft

Her husband, from whom she kept secret the extent of the
family’s chauffeur business’s woe, insisted Lloyds TSB was also partly to
blame.

After the inquest, he told how they had been with the bank for
years and had always had the loan renewed on a yearly basis.

This was
suddenly changed to monthly renewals and then finally withdrawn, cutting adrift
the family chauffeur car business which then went bust, he claimed.

‘We
did everything they asked us to do and then they moved the goal posts and kept
moving them. I am extremely bitter about it,’ Mr Davis said.

‘Lloyds bank
holds some of the responsibility for her death. We banked with Lloyds for many
years and had a very successful business. But at the beginning of this year,
they were themselves in serious financial difficulties.

‘We had an
extremely large overdraft of £30,000 which was secured on our house and other
guarantees. Previously it had been renewed annually but suddenly it was only
renewed monthly and then it was pulled completely.

‘How can we run a
business on that basis? I had a letter from the bank yesterday saying they were
still holding a personal guarantee of mine and they wanted it paid.

‘But
my company has now gone into liquidation and as far as I can, I shall make sure
that Lloyds don’t get a penny.’

Mrs Davis committed suicide on railway
tracks near the couple’s home in Chalford, near Stroud in Gloucestershire in
May.

After her death, some 4,000 letters she had hidden away were found.
Ironically, many contained payments from customers that would have eased their
financial problems.

Following the inquest jury’s verdict of suicide, her
husband said he could not understand why she had kept the extent of their debts
from him.

He said: ‘She must have been frightened to tell me because I
can be a bit fiery but she was a very intelligent woman and after what we had
been through, I can’t believe she kept it all from me.’

The inquest in
Cheltenham heard that Mrs Davis had struggled to cope with handling the
company’s debts with being a mother to their two children, aged six and
four.

Mr Davis said she was a ‘fantastic woman‘ and wonderful mother.

‘We went through a low point but we got through it with the help of
counselling and I thought we had come out the other side. I clearly missed
something. Nothing was as important as us and our family,’  he
said.

The inquest heard Mrs Davis went and knelt in front of a train on
May 13 after receiving the tax demand.

Train driver Ian Green told how he
sounded his horn when he spotted someone on the track and that at first, she had
stepped out of harm’s way.

‘As I approached the first short tunnel around
a bend at about 50 miles an hour, I saw a person standing near the line at the
far end. There was work taking place on the line that day so I was not alarmed,’
he said.

‘I immediately sound a double horn warning and the person
stepped back from the line. But as the train drew closer she stepped forward and
knelt down on the line facing away from me. I applied the brakes but there was
nothing I could do to avoid her.’

An Audi belonging to Mr and Mrs Davis
was found parked in a lay-by nearby. The inquest heard there was a three-page
debt management letter on the front seat referring to the unpaid tax bill.

The family firm, Chauffeurwise Ltd, had succeeded at first but had to
sell half its fleet of eight cars when trade slowed, the hearing was told.

By 2008, it was in ‘deep financial trouble’, John Wilson from the
British Transport Police said.

‘Mrs Davis received counselling and was
on anti-depressants,’ he said. ‘Mr Davies said their marriage had been
blissfully happy and he thought the financial problems had been
settled.

‘But since her death 4,000 letters have been found which had
been secreted around the house, and many contained cheques from customers which
had they been cashed would have helped the company’s situation.’

The
inquest heard the Inland Revenue had contacted Mrs Davis several times about the
outstanding debts and that even on the morning of her death, she had not shown
signs of unusual behaviour on the phone.

Her GP Dr Susie Weir said her
health had been generally good until 2006 when she gave her anti-depressants
because she was struggling to cope with working full time and caring for her
young children.

She saw her again in March 2009 and said she did not
remember her being stressed or in a low mood but that she was back on
anti-depressants at that
point.