A CORONER has warned of the dangers of sleeping in waste bins after the inquest into the death of Matthew Symonds, who had been turned away from a homeless shelter in Swindon.

Matthew Symonds, 34, was found dead at a recycling plant two days after the bin he was sleeping in was emptied into the back of a rubbish truck.

His body had lain undiscovered at a waste plant in Swindon under piles of newspaper, cardboard and plastic before being taken to the recycling centre at Avonmouth, near Bristol.

It was there that staff made the grim discovery as a newly arrived lorry-load of waste from Swindon was stamped together into parcels.

Speaking after a jury returned a conclusion of unnatural death, Ian Singleton, assistant coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, said: "There is a limit to what anyone can do to prevent those who are determined from entering a bin to do so.

"I hope the publicity arising from this tragic case can help to publicise the risks that are created when people do enter bins."

Afterwards, Mr Symonds' family demanded "reassurances" that more safety checks would be carried out before bins were emptied - to avoid others suffering the same fate.

The inquest in Salisbury, heard that Mr Symonds had climbed into the bin - located behind a Currys store in Swindon - after returning to a Salvation Army homeless shelter in the town hours after the 11pm curfew and being refused entry.

Mr Symonds, whose life had "spiralled out of control" as he battled a drug addiction, had only been released from prison a few days before he was found dead in August last year.

He had been staying at the hostel but when staff refused him entry at 3am on July 30 he bedded down under a pile of cardboard in the large bin.

Just a couple of hours later a lorry from waste management company Biffa arrived for its weekly collection and emptied the bin - with Mr Symonds falling around 20ft (6m) into the back of the truck.

The driver then used a hydraulic compressor on the newly loaded waste before taking it and other collections that day to a recycling company in the town for storage.

Mr Symonds lay there until the morning of August 1 when he was scooped up and loaded into a lorry and transported to the Biffa plant at Avonmouth.

There shocked staff made the grim discovery and alerted the authorities.

Biffa said that in the past 12 months there had been 100 incidents of people being found inside any of its 33,000 waste bins, which are emptied 13 million times a year.

The company said it reminded its customers to keep the bins locked at all times said it was also trialling a range of hi-tech measures to try to prevent people climbing in.

Safety manager Timothy Standing told the inquest: "If there is a need for people to find shelter they will find shelter, whether that is in a waste container or a doorway."

Pathologist Dr Russell Delaney said there was evidence of "significant disruption" to Mr Symonds's body that had been caused at the Avonmouth plant.

On the "balance of probabilities" he was already dead when he arrived there, he said.

Dr Delaney said Mr Symonds may have suffered a head injury which could have rendered him unconscious  when the waste bin was tipped into the back of the truck.

"I am not able to determine the precise mechanism by which he died," Dr Delaney said.

"It is possible that the injuries he sustained coming out of the original bin and then compacted in the lorry with a background of drug use led to his death.

"Certainly the circumstances would suggest that he was unaware of what was happening to him and the possible explanation for that is based on the injuries he may have sustained in that process."

He added that drugs alone had not killed Mr Symonds but was unable to give a precise cause of death.

Police did not treat his death as suspicious and said there was no third party involvement.

Speaking after the inquest, Mr Symonds family said: "We continue to be distressed about the way it happened - but the conclusion of today's inquest has given us an understanding of the sequence of events leading to his final hours.

"It is unfortunate we will never know with any certainty exactly how Matthew died. Now we would like some reassurance that more safety checks are completed on all waste bins before they are emptied.

"This will ensure that anyone else in the future will avoid the tragedy our family has suffered."

A Biffa spokeswoman said: "This was a tragic incident. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family of Matthew Symonds.

"We have in place a number of company-wide initiatives which we are constantly reviewing in an effort to minimise the risk of incidents like this."