A CORONER has described it as a "travesty of justice" that Hampshire police and ambulance staff had allegations that they did not properly deal with a 999 call hanging over them for more than a year.

Southampton coroner Keith Wiseman said all the evidence heard during a four-day inquest into the death of Ali Farah Bullaleh showed that ambulance and police officers had acted entirely appropriately.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission also found no police or ambulance staff misconduct when it investigated the 41-year-old's death.

Mr Bullaleh, a Somali national who had been living in Portswood Road, Southampton, died after he collapsed in Bevois Valley Road and suffered fatal chest injuries when he was hit by a taxi.

Less than an hour earlier he had called the ambulance service three times after he was assaulted outside The Dungeon Nightclub in Mount Pleasant Road.

But when Robbie Brown, Michael Brown and Sean Prewitt from the ambulance service and Sergeant Nicholas Saunders and PC Susan Bendon arrived the inquest was told how father-of four Mr Bullaleh refused their help and was "very abusive".

Reading from his 44-page judgement, Mr Wiseman said both the ambulance staff and police had behaved "exactly as one would hope" with Mr Bullaleh, who was twice the drink drive limit when he died during the early hours of November 12, 2006.

Mr Wiseman told how he received a letter from Mr Bullaleh's family solicitor outlining concerns that "neither the ambulance service nor the police service treated her father as they should have done and that race may well be relevant."

However Mr Wiseman said: "Southampton is a cosmopolitan society and no doubt a significant proportion of those whom the police and ambulance men come across are from ethnic minorities.

"There is not a shred of evidence that Mr Bullaleh was treated in any way differently because of his race and colour."