Pensioner, 78, Gets Tax Bill... For £4.7bn!

A pensioner who received an unpaid bill of more than £4.7bn says the tax man must have mistaken him for tycoon Richard Branson.

Doug Yeomans, 78, from Shardlow, Derbyshire, said the letter from HM Revenue & Customs ordered that a direct debit of almost £950m a month would be taken out of his account for the next five months to pay off the debt.

The father-of-two told Sky News: "I was a bit shocked when I saw the amount, I'm used to hundreds, not billions.

"They probably got me mixed up with the Chancellor of the Exchequer or Richard Branson, I don't know."

The former builder said he found the demand for £4,742,354,255 waiting for him in a letter at the weekend.

He said: "I could manage the £255 if I sold my Peugeot 206 and I'll have to cut down on my shopping at Asda.

"It's such a ridiculous figure I wasn't too worried, I don't know where they got their figures from."

When Mr Yeomans got through to the Revenue, they admitted having made a mistake.

"You can get an interview with the Pope easier than getting through to them," he said.

A spokesperson for HMRC said they were very sorry for the error.

"We don't talk about individual cases but when we make mistakes we aim to put them right fast and apologise."