The boss of a driver agency has spoken of her shock at losing “a valued member of staff” after he was found dead in a suspected chemical suicide pact.

Lorry driver Stephen Lumb, 35, was found in a car parked near an industrial estate in Braintree, Essex, on Monday with Joanne Lee, 34, of Great Notley, near Braintree.

Mr Lumb, of Sowerby Bridge, had worked for almost four years as a class two driver for Diamond Drivers in Keighley.

Michelle Robinson, owner of the agency, last night told the Telegraph & Argus that Mr Lumb was a well-liked and respected driver.

She said: “He was always in very high demand – he never let us down.

“He’s been with me from when I started the agency, so that’s nearly four years ago.

“He was just a lovely man.”

It is understood Mr Lumb first made contact with the woman on an internet suicide forum only hours before he drove 200 miles to Braintree to meet her.

Their bodies were found by a warehouse worker in a fume-filled car which had notes placed on the windows warning of toxic chemicals inside.

Mrs Robinson said: “I was devastated and shocked when I heard, it was just disbelief that something like that has happened. You read it happening to other people but it never happens to you or people you know.

“He will be very much missed and I have just lost a hugely-valued member of staff.”

Mrs Robinson said Mr Lumb was a popular driver among her clients.

She said: “He never let me down. I don’t think he’s once been ill, which is, as you can understand for an agency driver, fantastic.

“I could trust him 100 per cent.”

Mrs Robinson added: “He was a very quiet person, kept himself to himself, but a very friendly kind of guy.

“He would always have a laugh and a joke with people. I haven’t heard anybody say a bad word against him.”

Mr Lumb’s father Melvyn, who shared a home with him, said yesterday: “I thought the world of him. I couldn’t have had a better son.

“He didn’t seem any different, he had the same mannerisms. I didn’t know her, I knew nothing about her.

“He liked a beer and football, normal lad. It is a complete shock, I never expected anything like this. It is the last thing I would have expected. He was easy going. He seemed happy. There didn’t seem anything wrong. He lost his mother two-and-a-half years ago. I thought he had got over that, everything seemed all right.”

Essex Police said the deaths, near Braintree Enterprise Centre, were “highly unusual” and confirmed “noxious” substances had been found inside the vehicle.