The bin shed in South End Close

A MAN found unconscious in a bin shed in freezing temperatures last January died from alcohol-related causes, an inquest has heard.

In January 2025, the New Journal reported that a man had been found “frozen” and unresponsive by neighbours in South End Close, Hampstead, after they became aware of him staying in one of the estate’s bin sheds over the preceding days.

At the time, nobody could identify him – but this week an inquest heard that he was 55-year-old Florin Burla, a Romanian man who had been known to rough sleeping services in Camden since 2021.

Assistant coroner for Inner North London Sarah Bourke told how a woman had called an ambulance on January 11 after seeing Mr Burla’s legs poking out of the bin shed and getting no response when she tried to rouse him.

Paramedics found Mr Burla bleeding and hypothermic, with a body temperature of around 21 degrees, and he was taken to the Royal Free Hospital for treatment, the court heard.

After more than five hours of chest compressions and “rewarming” he was pronounced dead shortly after 5pm that same day, Ms Bourke told the court.

Following details of a toxicology report and post-mortem exam, the Coroner returned the conclusion that Mr Burla’s death was alcohol-related.

A statement from PC Bethany Charmling – who assisted paramedics at the scene in South End Close – was read to the court, and detailed her interaction with another resident, who said he had told police and the council that the man was sleeping in the bin shed but “felt as though nothing was being done”.

Police efforts to identify Mr Burla at first yielded no results – he was found with a sleeping bag and food but no personal items, and his only identifying feature was a tattoo of a dolphin on his abdomen, the court heard.

Ms Bourke told how a fingerprint search brought up no matches, and though one initial lead suggested Mr Burla may have been seen previously outside M&S in Pond Street, that also came to nothing.

But when officers found that his phone – recovered from the bin shed – was in Romanian, they searched Romanian and Interpol databases, where “ultimately information was forthcoming”, Ms Bourke told the court.

An incoming phone call on his mobile from a debt management company further suggested that the man was Florin Burla, which was later confirmed by the Romanian authorities, the coroner added.

Immediately after Mr Burla’s death last year, residents in South End Close told the New Journal they had taken him tea in the days before they found him unconscious, and though they had reported his presence to the Camden Street Safe app, he refused support from Camden’s outreach team.