A credit card giant has been criticised for inviting a man to apply for a card - eight years after he died.

The letter, from American Express, encouraged pensioner Cecil Baker to "indulge himself in the platinum service".

However, Mr Baker, from Danehill, near Haywards Heath, died in May 1994. The letter was received by his son Terence.

He said: "The letter was addressed to my father.

Unfortunately he has been lying in Danehill cemetery for the past eight years.

"My father was a market gardener all his life and never had a cheque book, never mind a credit card.

"They have obviously got his name off a list somewhere and sent the letter out without checking the facts. They didn't even get his address right.

"Even if he had been alive, he would have been 94 - would he really have wanted a platinum credit card?

"Companies like this are parasites in my view. They revolve around money, money, money."

Mr Baker, 60, of Tanyard Lane, Danehill, said he accepted junk mail was a part of life - but only for the living.

He said: "If he had only died a year or two ago I could understand it but eight years?

"I'm fairly thickskinned and, because it was eight years ago, I suppose I ought to be able to laugh at this.

"But the same thing must be happening to dozens of people. If they have only recently lost their nearest and dearest, it would be very upsetting.

"A few weeks ago I had a similar letter from a different company for my mother and she has been dead a year longer than my father. What is going on?

"There seems to be a trend of attempting to get new customers at any cost and it is a sad state of affairs."

American Express put the mistake down to an administrative error.

A spokeswoman said:

"We buy lists and, as a matter of policy, they are checked against electoral lists and mortality lists.

"This man may have had the the same name as someone else and we mailed the wrong person.

It was an unfortunate administrative error. Mistakes like this are rare and we will amend our lists.

"We will be writing to Mr Baker's family to apologise."