Woman told her bus pass was no longer valid on account of her being dead

A pensioner had her bus pass confiscated and was then told: "I'm sorry, our records show that you're dead." Maria Illingworth, who is 70 years old and a grandmother-of-four, said she "almost passed out" when a town hall worker said they thought she was deceased. She said she had been "embarrassed and confused" when the bus driver insisted he had to take her pass from her and is calling on Bournemouth council to ensure the same mistake is not made with anyone else. The problem arose when she tried to board a bus to take her from her home in Hengistbury Head, Dorset, to her doctor's surgery.

She had used her free bus pass two days before with no problem but this time it triggered an alert to the driver that it could be being used fraudulently. He said he had no choice but to confiscate it and Mrs Illingworth had to pay to board the bus. "It was so embarrassing," she said. "The bus was full and everyone was looking at me and I just couldn't understand what the problem could be. It was lucky I had my bag with me and enough money to get on the bus." She went straight to Bournemouth town hall and waited to see an advisor.



"I could see she had a little smile on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she said 'Well, according to the computer you are deceased.' I nearly passed out. I said 'I know I'm not very well but I'm not dead yet.'" Mrs Illingworth was told a new bus pass would be sent to her but she had to pay to take the bus back home from the town hall. She said: "What concerns me is no-one seems to know how this happened. What if it happened to somebody much older, who might not be able to sort it out? It was not a nice experience at all. I found it very worrying and embarrassing and I wouldn't want it to happen to anybody else."

Richard Barnes, public and community passenger transport manager, said: "We apologise to Mrs Illingworth for what happened and any distress this may have caused. The concessionary bus pass is a smartcard and in certain circumstances, usually when a passholder has deceased or been provided with a replacement pass, then the relevant pass is cancelled. This then shows up on the bus driver’s ticket machine to protect against fraudulent use. This is clearly not the case in this instance, so we have sent Mrs Illingworth a replacement pass and will reimburse any expenses that she incurs until the day that she receives it."