Richard CullenWILTSHIRE TIMES EXCLUSIVE: THE family of a Trowbridge mechanic found dead after building up £130,000 worth of debts are demanding to know why credit card firms allowed it to happen.

Richard Cullen, 65, was found in a car in the garage of his Wyke Road home, after apparently taking his own life, leaving his devastated family struggling to understand how he could have built up so much debt.

Wendy, his wife of 20 years, said: "He got himself into the most shocking credit card debt. He was borrowing off one to pay another one and I had no idea about it at all. I think people ought to know about this."

Mrs Cullen, 65, wants to warn others how easy it is to let debts spiral out of control.

She said: "If he could, then anyone could. He was a very intelligent man. People don't know how to get themselves out of this situation once they are in it."

She said her husband had up to 20 credit cards, four with the same bank, and the debts could rise further.

Mrs Cullen faces an uncertain future and does not know if she could lose everything, including her home, to pay back the debts.

"I have never owed so much as a penny in my life and this is horrific, it is just shattering," she said.

Her husband, a diabetic, left home on January 10 to go on a day trip to France but did not return home.

He left without medication he needed to take three times a day and his ticket to France was never used.

His body was found by his stepson on January 12.

Police spokesman Steve Coxhead said: "Tragically, at some stage Mr Cullen appears to have returned home where his body was discovered in a car in his garage."

Police are appealing for anyone who can help trace his movements during those two days to come forward.

The amount of money owed by British householders broke through the £1 trillion mark last year and MPs have called for banks and credit card companies to make charges clearer to customers. Some credit and store card providers charge interest rates at seven or eight times the Bank of England base rate.

Sarah Cardy, manager of the Citizens Advice Bureau in west Wiltshire, said the majority of their clients have money problems.

She said: "Once you have one credit card it makes it easier to get another, you get hundreds of offers through the letterbox. It can make people very stressed and there can be huge mental pressure."

As well as his wife, two daughters and six step-children, Mr Cullen also leaves 10 grandchildren and step-grandchildren.

An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned by the Wiltshire coroner on Thursday.

The funeral will be held at 12.30pm on Tuesday at the West Wiltshire Crematorium in Semington.