A MIDDLE-AGED computer worker died after drinking "a quite extraordinary amount of alcohol", an inquest heard.

Coroner Sheriff Payne said David Harvey's alcohol level was the highest he has dealt with in his career, at more than eight times the legal limit for driving.

A post mortem examination revealed the 41-year-old suffered acute alcohol poisoning before collapsing at his home on December 5 last year.

His alcohol level was 647 - the legal limit for driving is 80.

The Bournemouth inquest heard that Mr Harvey, who has a five-year-old daughter, was an alcoholic whose life had been blighted by his addiction.

Alcohol was partly to blame for the collapse of two marriages and he failed to take up an offer of help from local addiction services, the inquest was told.

Mr Payne was told Mr Harvey lived with his mother in West Way, Broadstone.

On the night of December 5 he was seen staggering around the garden, unable to get into the house, the coroner heard.

Police and paramedics were called and he was taken into the house but he refused to go to hospital.

When his mother, Sheila Harvey, arrived home from bingo, he was inside the house, the inquest was told.

She found him dead on the stairs half an hour later.

Recording a verdict that Mr Harvey died as a consequence of the abuse of alcohol, Mr Payne said: "During the course of 2007 he was drinking alcohol to great excess.

"He had a quite extraordinary amount of alcohol in his system."

He added: "I think it is the highest reading of alcohol that I have ever dealt with in my experience."