A mum was left distraught when a gas company tried to pursue her for bills wrongly issued to her son after his death.

Matthew Holliday died aged 31 in December 2013.

However his mum Barbara Charnley, of Workington, received letters from a debt collector acting on behalf of British Gas requesting payments for bills issued in 2018 in Matthew’s name - five years after he died and the house had been sold.

Barbara said: “What got to me was that British Gas asked me for a death certificate to update their records.

“I don’t need to do that, he wasn’t around then - it was absolutely horrendous.

“They were bang out of order.”

It was only when a reporter contacted British Gas that the company acknowledged the mistake.

The company has since apologised to Mrs Charnley.

A British Gas spokesman said: “We’re very sorry for sending the letters in error and understand that this has caused some upset to Mrs Charnley.

“We’ve updated our records, so it won’t happen again, and have been in touch directly to send on some flowers.”

The company said a marker in their records indicated Matthew was the landlord of the High Harrington home where the bills were issued.

When the account resulted unoccupied the bills went into the assumed landlord’s name.

Now British Gas has removed the debt as a precaution.

Barbara said the experience caused her distress because of the difficulty to get the message across to British Gas it was impossible Matthew could be liable for the bills.

She said: “I don’t even know who lives in the property, but I have evidence I sold it years ago, before these bills were issued.”

The two bills were for a total of £210.03 and were issued for the period between July and November 2018.

Matthew was a DJ and fisherman who had a history of mental health problems and drug misuse.

His body was found on the beach at Flimby.