The mother of a Tenby man, diagnosed with bi-polar, who drowned in Thailand has told an inquest it would not have happened if British police had listened to her pleas for help.

Sebastian Robert Palin, a former Greenhill School pupil, was found in the sea near Phuket in February this year.

The inquest heard how 31-year-old Mr Palin was a "hard worker with amazing energy" who had had a successful career as an estate agent.

In December 2013 he showed signs of a breakdown and was diagnosed with bi-polar in remission.

However by May the following year he was signed off by his mental health team and seemed "back to normal".

During a holiday to Thailand with his wife he showed signs of relapsing. The couple returned to the UK but Mr Palin flew back to Thailand alone.

His mother, Helen Palin, told the inquest she had "begged" police to stop him leaving the country; by this point he had stopped taking his medication.

"He decided that he was fine and that it was everybody else who had a problem. He went to Thailand and left his medication," she said.

"I begged police to stop him. He needed arresting to be forced to take medication. I truly believe that this would not have happened if the police had stepped in.

"My son was allowed to travel because he had means to do so. A few phone calls he could have been stopped at the airport, seen a psychiatrist and been sectioned."

"I feel that as a family we were totally let down."

Mr Palin's best friend, Matthew Benson, followed him to Thailand, bringing medication with him.

He found his friend had deteriorated.

"He looked tired and haggard, was in a bad way mentally and needed help," coroner's officer, Jeremy Davies, told the inquest.

Mr Benson took his friend to the mental health department of a hospital but he ran off. He eventually traced him to a hotel in Coral Island but was unable to reach him.

Mr Benson was subsequently contacted by the embassy in Bangkok and told that his friend had been found floating in the sea.

A post mortem carried out in this country gave the cause of death as drowning.

Coroner, Mark Layton, reached an open conclusion, stating: "The exact sequence of events leading to Mr Palin's death seems unclear; the evidence is simply not there. I am not satisfied to the standard of proof that this was a deliberate act or whether it was an accident."

He said that Mrs Palin's comments had been recorded but it was not the role of the inquest to look at issues of blame.