A grieving woman has branded the courts system “heartless” after her boyfriend was prosecuted and fined four months after he died.

Claire Tiffen has been forced to re-live the pain of losing Anthony Cutmore, 52, in January to a cardiac arrest again because bungling court officials ignored his death certificate – twice.

Anthony, of Horseshoe Lane, Garston, was due to appear at Stevenage County Court in February charged with speeding, but Claire informed them he had died.

So she was horrified when magistrates sent him a letter saying he did not ‘turn up’ and that they had rescheduled his hearing to April 26.

Furious, she sent them a copy of his death certificate and thought that would be the end of it.

But they prosecuted in his absence, giving him a six month driving ban and a £395 fine.

Claire, who had been with Anthony for 15 years, said: “I was in total disbelief when I saw the letter. It’s heartless.

“It is absolutely crazy, unfair and outrageous. How can they prosecute someone who isn’t there to defend themselves?

“It’s damaging and disrespectful to us. Losing him was bad enough and it’s been such a turbulent time, but this has made it all the more distressing.

“Nobody has ever told me how this has happened.”

The courts have confirmed they do have Anthony’s death certificate on record and have not been able to explain why such a devastating mix-up happened.

In the meantime, Claire is now left struggling to support her children and the family Anthony left behind financially.

Mark, 22, Stacey, 20, Demi, 18 and Ashton, 17, are his children from a previous relationship while her own children, Carl, 20, Rhys, 19 and Sophie, 17, were also left devastated by his death.

The Sunday before he died, on January 7, Claire had been working at Tesco in Watford while Anthony was finishing up an afternoon shift as a delivery driver for Asda.

He was due to pick her up at 3.30pm but called to say he was running late and she should meet him at home.

Claire opted to take the bus and as she was talking to the bus driver – an old friend – they spotted paramedics gathered round an Asda truck.

Concerned, she tried to ring Anthony – but there was no answer.

“I was in complete shock,” she said. “I said, don’t let it by Tony. Please, don’t let it be Tony.

“I didn’t want to get out of the bus because I was worried about interfering with what was going on.

“I rang Asda and they passed me straight onto a police officer. A feeling of dread came over me.”

Minutes later, a police officer turned up at her door and informed her Anthony had collapsed on a customer’s driveway.

Paramedics managed to resuscitate him but he had been rushed to Harefield Hospital where he had urgent heart surgery.

Doctors warned he may suffer brain damage but after repeated seizures, he was deemed brain dead.

His life support was switched off on January 14.

“My world was turned upside down,” Claire recalls. “He was everything to me, he was everything to us.

“We all have really bad days where we get quite emotional. We are still in disbelief. We expect him to walk through the front door and don’t believe this is real.

“I am struggling to cope, both financially and emotionally, but I struggle on because I have to.”

Family events, including birthdays, Christmas and Fathers’ Day will be the hardest, she says.

Anthony was a keen sportsman who was passionate about Arsenal Football Club and coached and managed local team Gadeside Rangers.

Paying tribute to Anthony, who she had due to marry, she said: “He was a cheeky chap. He had a childish naughty schoolboy kind of smile. He knew how to have a good life.

“He could talk the hind legs of a donkey and had the gift of the gab. He stepped up to my kids and I raised his youngest kids. “He was best mates with them, but he made friends with everybody.

“He was the light of our lives, a total legend.”