The letter addressed to "Mr JW Briggs (deceased)", landed on the doormat of his widow, Pauline, on Tuesday, after she cancelled her husband's accidental death insurance.

Mrs Briggs, 59, of Gladstone Road, Kingston, had cancelled the insurance through her bank, following the death of her husband, John, from lung cancer on March 1.

But she was shocked to receive the letter from Avon Insurance addressed to her husband which read: "Mr JW Briggs (deceased), we have recently been advised by the Abbey National of the death of Mr Briggs, we were very sorry to learn of your bereavement and offer our sympathy to your family.

"It's driving me up the wall," said Mrs Briggs, who received a letter addressed to her husband last week from European Horoscope Readings telling him that his luck would be changing this summer.

"I don't know how they think us widows can cope with things like this. I couldn't believe what I was reading."

She added that it had upset her but she wouldn't be reduced to tears by corporate stupidity.

"It's the insensitivity of companies who write these things. It's not only me, other widows and widowers get the same type of thing happening to them."

Both Mr and Mrs Briggs worked as postmen at the Surbiton depot and had been married 12 years.

Mr Briggs was diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago and had been at the Princess Alice Hospice, in Esher.

More than 200 'post people' attended his funeral.

A spokesman for Avon Insurance said the company was "deeply embarrassed" at the mistake.

She said: "The letter should have been checked, it was a pure oversight.

It wasn't a computerised letter but was taken from pre-written paragraphs."

She added that the company would be writing to Mrs Briggs to apologise.

"Letters are usually checked and for some reason this was not, so we will be investigating that internally," she said.