A man who died after setting himself alight in Surbiton on Friday had beaten his wife and could have been facing jail today, it has emerged.

Barmak Karimi, 39, died in the early hours of Saturday morning from severe burns, after starting a fire in his flat in Brighton Road.

He was due to be sentenced at Kingston Magistrates’ Court this afternoon after admitting assaulting his wife Fatemeh Shafie-Abady on August 21.

He had been banned from coming within half-a-mile of their flat above Yumcha Chinese restaurant unless he was accompanied by a police officer, and ordered to spend every night outside the borough of Kingston.

The Metropolitan Police has launched an internal investigation because police had been called to a disturbance the flat at 6.40pm, just hour-and-a-half before they returned and found him on fire.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission were notified of the man’s death because it officers were involved with the address ahead of the fire.

The IPCC have passed the investigation back to the Met.

While the police investigation is ongoing, a spokesman could not say if Karimi had been at the flat on the first occasion or whether officers had failed to arrest him for breaching his bail conditions.

The fire trapped several neighbours inside the burning building. Five flats have been left uninhabitable.