Police have admitted a series of failures after they reviewed their own investigation into the death of a cyclist in Ramsgate.

Marc Dunk, 28, was cycling to work at Charles River laboratory - a route he had travelled for 15 years - when his bicycle collided with a Mercedes lorry near Manston Airport in February 2010.

At a subsequent inquest, a verdict of accidental death was recorded.

It has since emerged a post-mortem examination was not carried out, officers did not interview the lorry driver until seven weeks later and the inquest was told the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In fact, he had taken codeine.

Kent Police spokesman Nicola Foreman said: “The Kent and Essex serious crime directorate has concluded their case review into a collision in Manston Road in which Marc Dunk sustained fatal injuries.

“Lessons have been learned from the original investigation and working practices have been adapted to ensure, as far as is possible, that any shortcomings are not repeated.

“Our sympathies remain with Mr Dunk’s family and we have met with them and talked at length about the investigation, the review and our findings.

“The review concluded that, although there were issues with the investigation, these would have been unlikely to have altered the outcome of the case.”

Mr Dunk’s parents Christine and Anthony Elson, of Yew Tree Gardens, Birchington, are considering taking legal action against the police.

They have submitted countless requests under freedom of information legislation and have even paid privately for an independent collision analysis.

Mrs Elson said: “No one should have to go through this, it is bad enough losing your son but for the case to be treated like this by the police - I don’t even know what my son died of.

“We initially wanted the case to be reopened, have the inquest overturned and information investigated properly but now we are looking at suing the police because we need to force them to put in the work that they should have put in the first place.

“It is absolutely ludicrous and we want to know why they didn’t do a post-mortem.”