A coroner has warned of the dangers of supermarkets offering cheap alcohol after a Loddon man “drank himself to death”.Roger Prosser, from Leman Grove, died on September 27 last year with a blood alcohol measure more than six times higher than the drink-drive limit.

A coroner has warned of the dangers of supermarkets offering cheap alcohol after a Loddon man “drank himself to death”.

Roger Prosser, from Leman Grove, died on September 27 last year with a blood alcohol measure more than six times higher than the drink-drive limit.

Speaking at the inquest into his death yesterday, coroner William Armstrong called the alcohol levels “exceptionally high” and spoke of the dangers of offering extremely cheap beers, wines and spirits.

Mr Prosser, 64, had suffered with alcohol addiction since 1975 and regularly visited his friend Lee Woodard, also from Loddon, at 11am to begin drinking.

The day he died Mr Prosser had been his “usual self,” according to Mr Woodard.

But that afternoon Mr Prosser collapsed, and despite friend Laura Jayne Clitheroe attempting to resuscitate him, he died from acute alcohol intoxication.

Miss Clitheroe, of Costessey, said that his regular morning trips to Mr Woodard's flat were “like a little ritual”.

“It was almost like a coffee morning,” she said. “White cider and red wine were Roger's poison.”

“Roger was a very great, generous, nice man. He would see the great in others when they wouldn't see the great in themselves.”

Speaking at the inquest Mr Armstrong said that: “The plain fact of his case is that Roger drank himself to death. It's alarming that alcohol can be purchased at a price less than bottled water. A substantial number of deaths are linked to alcohol abuse.”

Mr Armstrong ruled that Mr Prosser died of acute alcohol intoxication, in the context of an underlying heart condition.