A DIDCOT pensioner has won a two-year battle with the Inland Revenue, after it admitted tax collecters were wrong to hound him for tens of thousands of pounds.

Leon Cornish, 79, of Wessex Road, has received an apology from the taxman admitting there had been repeated errors in handling his case.

The widower, who has been retired for 15 years, has now warned other pensioners not to be intimidated by Inland Revenue letters demanding extra money.

The dispute started in November 2007, when the Inland Revenue sent Mr Cornish a £3,000 rebate cheque which officials had calculated he was owed.

But two months later, they demanded the money back.

They then bombarded him with letters, eventually demanding he pay a whopping £24,000 in unpaid tax. He was told that for every day he did not pay, another £1.50 would be added to his bill.

Mr Cornish, whose wife died in 1996, said he had received 28 letters in one week – including 15 letters in one day – all demanding increasing sums of money.

Now Inland Revenue officials have admitted that they made mistake after mistake in handling his case – and confirmed Mr Cornish didn’t owe them a penny.

Mr Cornish’s date of birth had not been entered into computer records, and small one-off tax liabilities had been repeatedly recounted year after year, until they totalled a huge sum.

In an official letter sent by a complaints officer at the Inland Revenue to Mr Cornish’s accountants, Nockels Hornsey, of Abingdon, said: “I offer no excuses, only an unreserved apology for the service your client has received.

“I have no doubt that this will have left you with a very bad impression and I fully appreciate the frustration and inconvenience this matter has caused to both of you.”

Mr Cornish said he wanted to use his experience to highlight the danger of over-zealous officials harassing vulnerable pensioners for money they did not owe.

He said: “I’m worried about other people.

“There are pensioners coughing up money when they shouldn’t be.

“The people at the Inland Revenue were so bolshy on the phone, it was unbelievable.

“I’m worried about pensioners having debt collectors sent round to their homes.”

Accountant Aubrey Nockels added: “This doesn’t only relate to pensioners, but to any taxpayer.

“Everybody has to check their tax and make sure they’re paying the correct amount.

“As the Government brings in more cuts and public bodies have fewer staff, then errors will occur.

“This is a problem that’s going to get worse, rather than better.”