A postmaster died when his car went into a ditch and burst into flames, an inquest heard.

Vasta Odedra was over the drink-drive limit when his white Volvo V40 crashed on the verge of the A337 by the Otter Nurseries in Everton, near Milford-on-Sea, in the early hours of May 29 this year.

The 29-year-old and his wife had only moved to Hampshire to run Lymington Post Office from Leicester two months earlier.

Tesco heavy goods vehicle driver John Brookes said in a statement how he had spotted the car ablaze off the road just after 3am.

“The car was facing downwards into the ditch and was well alight,” he said.

“It was on fire back to and including the front passenger seats.

“I could hear the car cracking and popping, I thought that it was going to explode.”

The inquest in Winchester heard how Mr Odedra was around 1.8 times over the legal drink drive limit at the time of the accident.

Pathologist Dr Norman Carr said the postmaster had sustained a severe head injury in the crash, which left him unconscious before the car had burst into flames.

The court heard that on the day before his death Mr Odedra had visited London to apply for a visa to visit India, then drunk vodka with friends.

He began the 117-mile return journey to his home in Keyhaven Road, Milford-on-Sea, in the early hours of the following morning.

Hampshire police’s Sgt Simon Brooks said the Volvo had been photographed by a camera going through roadworks on the M3 near Farnborough at 02.22, and its speed between there and the crash scene would have averaged in excess of 80mph.

Accident investigators found tyre marks on the road by the crash, and concluded that the Volvo had then hit trees, spun round and become wedged in the ditch in a “high speed impact”.

Recording an accidental death verdict, assistant coroner Sarah Whitby said: “On the balance of probabilities, excessive speed and alcohol contributed to the crash.”