The Merseyside, UK Road Safety Camera Partnership upheld the validity of a speed camera ticket issued to a dead man saying the "mitigating circumstances" of the man's passing "cannot be considered." The machine had accused the late William Allen violating the speed limit in his Vauxhall Vectra sedan on Balliol Road in December.

Allen's daughter, Patricia Cross, sent a letter explaining that her father had died from cancer in May and could not have been speeding in December. The Speed Camera Enforcement Unit responded with a letter insisting they had sufficient evidence to prosecute Allen.

"If a death certificate isn't enough proof, I don't know what is," Cross told the Liverpool Echo newspaper.

Contacted by the Echo, a spokesman for the speed camera partnership admitted the error but blamed Allen's family for not updating the vehicle registration records. The family had sold the Vauxhall months ago.

"It can't be blamed only on a computer," Cross said. "Surely a person had to open and read my letter and then have a reply sent out."