A man from the Wirral was surprised to receive a fixed penalty notice addressed to his wife from Merseyside Police just days after her death.
John Brace, 41, from Birkenhead, 'didn't really know what to do' when he received the fixed penalty notice addressed to his wife informing her of an outstanding £100 fine. Just two days earlier, officers had been to his house to notify him of her death. Leonora Brace, 74, died from injuries related to a fall in her home on January 15.
The police had issued Mrs Brace the penalty notice two days before her death for driving without the proper license along Boundary Road, Birkenhead. Unfortunately, a delay in the post meant that it wouldn’t arrive for 4 days until it was eventually received by her newly widowed husband. Mr Brace also had to pay £150 to collect his late wife’s car from the police compound.
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Mr Brace told the ECHO: “Obviously after somebody dies things still come through the post to them and that can be upsetting because it’s a reminder that they’re not around anymore
“And you’ve got to open their mail in case it’s something important. When somebody dies their bank accounts are frozen and you get notifications about this payment or that payment and you have to transfer things and tell companies that she’s died.
“The other complicated factor was that when I inquired about the fixed penalty notice they asked about the death certificate, but because her case was with the coroner no death certificate would be issued for about two months, so it did take a bit of persistence with Merseyside Police in the end to get them to acknowledge that she was dead.
“But eventually they said that they would cancel it, that was their response.
“I didn’t really know what to do about it.”
A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said: “While we understand that it would be distressing to receive a notice of this kind following a bereavement, the notice had been posted out the day before the lady’s death. Once we were notified of her death the notice was cancelled. Our thoughts are with the lady’s family at this sad time.”
