POSTMISTRESS Dawn Holt wrote about pressure at work in a suicide note before downing a lethal cocktail of drugs and alcohol.

She was found dead in her car outside Carterton Health Centre, Alvescot Road, in April, with the letter next to her on the passenger seat.

Mrs Holt, 50, of Black Bourton Road, Carterton, had run the Faringdon Post Office, in Market Place, for four years and also worked at the St Giles branch in Oxford.

During an inquest at Oxfordshire Coroners’ Court on Thursday, Det Sgt Dick White said officers found two empty bottles of gin and vodka and bottles of tablets in the car.

Mr White also found the note, which read: “I am very sorry for putting you all through this, but no longer can cope with life. The pressure at the Post Office over the last few months. I know you will all say I took the easy way out, but I could not think of any other options. I am so sorry.”

Her husband Stephen said she was worried about losing her job after the branch struggled to hit its sales targets.

Mr Holt, 51, said the news had came as a complete shock to his wife, who had worked for the firm for 15 years.

After the inquest, Mr Holt said his wife was subjected to a new appraisal four weeks before she killed herself.

“She knew that job like the back of her hand, then all of a sudden there was a lot of pressure on her. Just a month before she died they brought in this whole ‘goals and targets’ thing,” he said.

The appraisal said her branch was more than £36,000 short of its annual ‘Travel Money’ target – despite making £169,859 for the company.

It added: “Dawn has had a tough year against target. We are now looking forward positively to the new year.”

Mr Holt said: “It was a complete shock to her.

“She thought her job was under threat. I told her we would cope. The past four years had been no problem.”

A Post Office spokesman would not comment on the note or the goals and targets, but said: “We were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Mrs Holt and our condolences remain with her family and friends at this difficult time.”

The inquest heard Mrs Holt, who downed fatal levels of gin and vodka, as well as prescription drugs and paracetamol, had been treated for depression during the past 12 years.

Pathologist Dr Chandima Rajaguru said she had 519mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood and fragments of drug tablets were found in her stomach.

She added: “I concluded death due to drugs overdose. But the amount of alcohol was lethal alone.”

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict that Mrs Holt had taken her own life.