Hmm. An interesting question.
It's unfortunate that AB's tame barrister (Barmaid)is currently on her hols in Scotland. She'd probably be the expert that you really need. (However, watch out for a reply from Jenna1978, our tame solicitor).
My (purely amateur) opinion is that the Crown Prosecution Service would find it very difficult to achieve a successful criminal prosecution. The Fraud Act 2006 includes the offence of 'fraud by misrepresentation' (e.g. by pretending to be the rightful user of a credit card) but, for a successful prosecution, the CPS would have to show that the alleged offender was seeking to make a gain for himself or for
someone else, or that he was seeking to cause a loss to someone else:
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegT ype=All+Legislation&title=fraud&Year=2006&sear chEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&b lanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumb er=1&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=2922456&A ctiveTextDocId=2922461&filesize=2772
In the circumstances you describe, any prosecution would obviously fail.
I suspect that the only valid legal action would be the use of civil law (by the credit card company) to withdraw the card and demand immediate repayment of the outstanding balance.
Chris
(PS: When my Mum died, she'd got just �50 in her own bank account. Just before she died, she gave me her PIN and told me to take it out. I used her bank card, and PIN, several days after her death and then notified the bank of her correct date of death. Nobody ever queried the use of a bank card 'by a dead person'. I suspect that,