Traffic wardens have come under fire for slapping two parking tickets on a car abandoned near the Thames by a woman who had committed suicide.

Derek Deans, whose sister Loraine Lawrence, 30, drowned herself after an overdose failed to work, said parking attendants should have alerted police when they found the vehicle.

At an inquest into his sister's death, held at Westminster Coroner's Court last Tuesday, he said: "When I found her car near Putney Bridge, it was unlocked, the keys were in the ignition and her handbag was in full view.

"It had obviously been abandoned yet it had not one, but two parking tickets on it, issued by the same warden."

Coroner Paul Knapman said: "It would have been far better if a traffic warden reported it to the police but it is not an ideal world. It's less than perfect but I don't think we should go into it now."

Miss Lawrence, of Heathfield Road, Wandsworth, was last seen on Monday, November 1. Her body was found on the banks of the Thames at Prospect Place, Wandsworth, the following morning.

On the Wednesday, her mother found a suicide note which said: "OD has not worked. Going to Putney Bridge where car will be." The family rushed to the bridge and found her abandoned car, complete with parking tickets.

The court heard Miss Lawrence was depressed after her brother Patrick died from a brain tumour in October.

Miss Lawrence last saw her GP, Dr Timothy Ross, on October 26 and asked for time off work because her brother was going into a coma. In a statement, he said: "She was understandably depressed and somewhat down, given the state of her brother, but she did not seem suicidal."

A postmortem examination revealed she had taken a cocktail of paracetamol and sleeping tablets.

But Mr Knapman said the drugs would not have been enough to kill her and recorded a verdict of suicide by drowning.

A Wandsworth Council spokesman said: "This was clearly a tragic case and our sympathies go out to the family and friends of the deceased.

"Now that we have been made aware of the circumstances we have cancelled the tickets.

"However, we do not believe the criticism of the parking attendant is justified.The doors were closed and the attendant would not be expected to look at the steering column to check if the keys were still in the ignition or check that the doors were locked."

shalls@london.newsquest.co.uk