A BUSINESSMAN and former parish councillor drank himself to death three days after leaving a private clinic offering treatments for alcoholics, an inquest heard.

Peter Scott-Allen, aged 55, was found dead at his home in Holywell Lake on January 18 last year when police responded to a ‘concern for welfare’ request from his family after he failed to turn up for work.

Police discovered Mr Scott-Allen in his bathroom slumped over a bathtub with his head and shoulders under water and blood at the bottom of the bath.

They at first thought he had drowned, but assistant coroner Stephen Covell, sitting in the Old Municipal Buildings, Taunton, said a pathology report showed his urine had a high and potentially fatal level of alcohol.

Mr Covell said it was most likely Mr Scott-Allen died from a ‘medical event’ as he prepared his bath before falling into the bathtub.

He said sudden and unexpected death was a phenomenon known to occur among people with alcohol dependency.

Mr Covell said Mr Scott-Allen was known to have a long-standing problem with excess consumption of alcohol which had become worse during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

He had self-referred on January 4 last year for an alcohol detoxification course in the Priory Clinic, in Bristol, where he was advised he should stay for four weeks to reduce the risk of a relapse afterwards.

However, because of commitments to the pet food business he ran in the Honiton area with his wife Sarah, he discharged himself after only 11 days on January 15.

Mr Covell recorded a verdict that Mr Scott-Allen died of alcohol intoxication.