A HUDDERSFIELD policeman who died in a diving tragedy may have panicked.

An inquest into the death of 41-year-old traffic policeman Paul Imeson revealed he was inexperienced and took his mask off when he resurfaced.

But if he had dropped his lead-weighted diving belt, his chances of survival would have been greater.

Pc Imeson, of Hepworth, drowned last October in a sea swell off Anglesey.

Desperate efforts to revive him ashore failed.

The inquest at Llangefni revealed Pc Imeson was a novice diver who had taken a three-day holiday diving course in the Caribbean. But the hearing was told that sea conditions around the UK are very different.

Pc Imeson had been diving with two companions, one of them experienced. The other his brother-in-law who was also a novice.

Tragedy struck when Pc Imeson came to the surface at Trearddur Bay.

Police underwater expert and instructor Pc Colin Samuel told the inquest he believed it would have been better if the two novices had trained preferably in a swimming pool

to learn about buoyancy.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones said it could be frightening for a diver to surface and then find himself low in the water in a swell.

Mr Pritchard-Jones added: "Unfortunately he did not drop his weight belt which would have achieved positive buoyancy immediately and made it easier to keep his head above the water."