WIDOW Ann Gibbs used money from her husband’s estate to pay for food at his wake.

But the cost of the food, and her decision to use the estate funds to clear a £7,000 credit card bill to ease financial worries led the 63-year-old to take her own life.

Mrs Gibbs became concerned about having used the funds and, fearing an investigation, convinced herself she could go to jail.

She could see only one way out and three months after her husband’s death in December, she hanged herself.

At an inquest into her death at County Hall in Maidstone, coroner Roger Sykes said Mrs Gibb’s anxiety had been totally misplaced and she had had no reason to worry.

He said: “It is very sad that she felt particularly vulnerable because of the financial transaction that has been mentioned because I am quite sure that there is nothing there to cause concern.

“Her anxiety was misplaced. Reasonable expenses are allowed for legitimate expenses for a funeral and there would have been no consequences from that. She hadn’t done anything remotely incorrect.”

The inquest heard that Mrs Gibbs, of Norman Close, Maidstone, was a natural worrier, and had discussed her fears with her son, Roderick, but had seemed happier in the days before her death on March 6.

She had been due to pick her granddaughter up from nursery that morning and he had gone to her house when she failed to turn up.

He found her hanged from the third floor banister of her terraced house.

Mr Gibbs said: “She was a natural worrier. She was concerned that she had done things in the wrong way. She was convinced she’d go to prison for it. But that week she had seemed in better spirits.”

Home Office pathologist Dr David Rouse gave the medical cause of death as suspension.

Mr Sykes said: “This wasn’t something that had been particularly pre-meditated. We will never know what was going through her mind at the time.”

He recorded a verdict that she had taken her own life.