By Elizabeth Broughton

Last updated 14:01, Thursday, 20 November 2008

A Government department sent a Carlisle woman someone else’s bank details through the post.

Dot Park, 60, of Belle Vue, thought nothing of it when she received a letter from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) at East Kilbride.

But, when she opened it, the letter which was addressed to her contained the account number, sort code and name of someone entirely different.

“I think it’s pretty dire that they’ve given me enough information to swindle this girl out of money if I was that way inclined,” said Mrs Park. “The letter had my name and address at the top but then someone else’s details.”

The letter referred to a direct debit mandate, which Mrs Park said was not included in the letter and therefore may have gone to the right person.

She contacted HMRC to notify them of their mistake but said: “They didn’t seem at all put out that I had received this. The girl on the phone was quite unsure what to do and they weren’t overly apologetic, I didn’t even get to speak to a manager.”

They asked Mrs Park to return the letter to them, but she remains worried that this may not be an isolated incident. The concern is that anyone who has dealings with HMRC risks having their details accidentally passed on to someone else – and not even knowing about it.

“If the other girl knew this had happened she would be horrified,” said Mrs Park

“There’s no way I would try and take money out of her account but it would be easy to do.

“It’s a bit disconcerting that yet again there’s a mistake been made.”

HMRC have promised to launch a full investigation into how the error was made. A spokesperson said: “Whilst we look into this urgently can I apologise to everyone concerned for any inconvenience or distress caused?

“I cannot discuss individual customers or cases for tax payer confidentiality reasons.

“However, in the first instance I would urge all customers to contact HMRC immediately if they discover misdirected mail.

“We take all such incidents seriously and will investigate the cause of the issue.”

The spokesperson also added that they provide further security information on their website at www.hmrc.gov.uk.

Mrs Park said that she intends to return the letter to HMRC immediately.