SUICIDE verdicts have been brought in following the deaths of a couple – who ran two care homes- found dead in the back seat of their fume filled car in a Fenland field.

Jaswant Singh Beeharry, 48, and Isabel Ibanez-Mahiques, 54, were found in the back seat of their Black BMW last June.

An inquest at Wisbech heard how they had died from carbon monoxide poisoning. A petrol can and lighter were later found in the front seat of the car, discovered in a sugar beet field at Floods Ferry near Doddington.

The couple, of Back Road, Friday Bridge, owned the Terrington Lodge home, at Terrington St Clement, and the Maria Helena Care home at Spalding, Lincs.

However the inquest heard of the financial difficulties which had hit the couple and shortly before their death they had been due to tell staff at their Spalding care home of its imminent closure.

When the inquest was opened last year, the coroner was told that the farm manager at Bradney Farm, in Floods Ferry Road, alerted the emergency services after spotting the car parked in a field at the farm.

Police and paramedics arrived to find the couple dead, with slight fire damage noted on the inside of the car.

More than 50 elderly people lived at the couple’s two care homes. A Care Quality Commission report, published after an inspection in 2009, said the standard of care at Terrington Lodge was “homely” and considered “second to none” by residents. Marie Helena Care describes itself as “a stately hall, where time is measured by a shadow on the wall”.

Wednesday’s resumed inquest heard that the couple had told social services in Lincolnshire they had been struggling to make ends meet because of falling occupancy levels.

Coroner William Morris said he was satisfied both had intended to take their own lives and recorded suicide verdicts.