Alexander, 33, discovered that he had been pronounced dead

– I'd been dead for 13 days, says Alexander, who lives in the west of Blekinge.

It all began to come to light when Alexander had problems logging in with his bank identity number and handling his bank business. Extremely frustrated, he contacted his local bank and asked what was wrong. After a while his bank contact phoned him.

– Oh, it's great to hear that you're still alive, she said, Alexander tells us. He didn't understand what it was all about. Why shouldn't he be alive?

Then she said that the bank had received notification from the Swedish Tax Agency's register that Alexander had died.

Sure enough the Tax Agency's population register confirmed that Alexander was dead, according to their register. But now he's come back to life.

– We've got a death certificate from a doctor at CSK, says Chaba Nagy at the Tax Agency, but what the doctor has written is not correct.

18th February Alexander's death was removed from the population register and he is now registered as being alive.

In order to be declared dead according to the regulations a doctor must sign a death certificate and submit it to the Swedish Tax Agency. Alexander thinks he has been the victim of a false doctor. That someone out of spite or as a bad joke has pretended to be a doctor, filled in the form and sent it in. He has no idea who, and thinks it is dreadful that what happened to him.

He has no idea who it might be, and thinks it is simply dreadful.

Now the Swedish Tax Agency is going to tighten up security. There will be no more death certificates on paper. Instead the system will be made digital, with a special log-in requirement. About 20 per cent of Swedish doctors already submit death certificates digitally.

– What has happened is unfortunate. Our aim is to make it bligatory for a doctor to log in using his/her legitimation in order to send in a death certificate, says Ingegerd Widell at the Tax Agency.