A MAN in financial difficulty drowned himself at a Snowdonia beauty spot, an inquest has heard.

David Michael Foster, of Cloverdale Square, Bolton, was thought to be expecting legal proceedings to be brought against him when he drove to Nant Gwynant valley and killed himself.

The 60-year-old was found floating in Llyn Gwynant, the scenic lake next to a popular campsite, near Beddgelert, on Monday, 21 September.

The accountant’s body was seen by a member of the public who called the police, an inquest at Caernarfon heard on Wednesday.

PC Llinos Wyn Jones told coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones she was the first officer to arrive on the scene.

“It was apparent to me that he was deceased,” she said. “His head was submerged in the water. There were no signs of life.”

Mr Foster’s body was recovered from the lake and his car discovered 30 metres away.

“There was nothing to suggest how or why he would have got to be in the water at all,” said PC Jones.

Coroner Mr Jones said he had received e-mails from the 60-year-old’s widow Alison Foster that helped to explain why Mr Foster would have killed himself.

It is not the north west Wales coroner’s usual policy to reveal details of suicide notes but he did offer some context to the accountant’s death.

He said: “He had financial difficulties. He was under investigation and there was every likelihood of him appearing in court.

“From what Mrs Foster told me, it was clear that he intended to do away with himself.

“Mr Foster had parked his car by the side of Llyn Gwynant and, although we have no eye witness evidence of this, I am quite satisfied that he went to the lake and drowned himself.

“The e-mails that he sent to his wife would indicate that was so.”

The coroner recorded the cause of death as drowning and the narrative verdict: “David Michael Foster did kill himself.”