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Thursday, 6 March 2008, 13:51 GMT

Car letter sent to 'passed away'

The letter sent to Mrs Haigh including the 'passed away died' address line A widow has been receiving letters from a car rental company addressed to her dead husband which included the words "passed away" in the family address.

Cynthia Haigh, of Brighouse near Halifax, West Yorkshire, said her husband died on Christmas Day in 2006.

But despite telling the new owners at Polar Ford in Huddersfield the letters to him kept arriving.

In a statement the company said it took over the dealership and its database in 2007 and apologised for the letters.

Mrs Haigh said the family had lived at the address in the town for over 40 years.

She said a letter arrived at her home addressed to Mr David Haigh, Passed Away Died, Brighouse, West Yorkshire from the Polar Ford company on 10 December 2007.

"It's diabolical what they do"
Widow Cynthia Haigh

The family contacted the company and explained Mr Haigh had died. Mrs Haigh said she was assured the matter would be rectified and a letter of apology sent out.

But on 13 and 14 February two more letters, addressed the same way, arrived at her home.

She said: "It's diabolical what they do, they shouldn't be sending out letters [like that] addressed to anybody.

"It's just devastating because you just think you're getting yourself pulled together and then you pick up a letter addressed like that, and it all comes back again."

In a statement Polar Ford said they had bought the Huddersfield dealership in December 2007 and also acquired the database.

The firm said it had paid for a thorough check of their records and launched an investigation.

Tony Christmas, general manager of Polar Ford Huddersfield said: "We are appalled that such an error has occurred.

"We are apologising to our customer and are undertaking a thorough check to make sure it doesn't happen again."




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