Bungling insurers tell wife husband is dead and pay off mortgage

Elaine Wood opened the morning post, she almost fell off her chair in shock.

The letter said that following the death of her husband Harry, the rest of their mortgage was being paid off and she would receive a £25,000 lump sum.

He had only left for work a few hours earlier, but Mrs Wood was still alarmed so rang him to confirm that he was alive and well.

Given the opportunity to live mortgage-free, some hard-pressed homeowners would have been unable to resist playing along.

But the Woods are law-abiding, so Mr Wood, 52, contacted their insurers and building society to convince them that, in Mark Twain's famous phrase, reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated.

"If I'd been that sort of person, I'd probably have got away with it, but it never crossed my mind," he said yesterday.