Postal mystery in Cardiff, Wales

A Cardiff flat owner has been left flummoxed after he received 11,000 tax bills for Chinese companies.

The companies have all used his address in Wales to register for VAT and he has been receiving hundreds of HMRC letters through his door in the past few weeks.

HM Revenue and Customs have apologised to Mr Dylan Davies, but they say the error is a mystery.

Chief executive Jim Harra said they were aware of a serviced office address which was similar but is not exactly the same and so that may not be the explanation. He went on to say the HMRC had not as yet got to the bottom of the mystery but that he was confident it was not a widespread fraud.

Out of the 11,000 letters delivered to Mr Davies’s address in Cardiff, more than 2,000 of them owe money for tax payments. However, Mr Jarra said that collecting the debts would be a “challenge.” Because they have no genuine address to write to about the situation.

Mr Davies was given assurances that no legal action would be taken against him, as the owner of the property to which the letters have been sent. He did contact the HRMC when he first received the letters but he did not receive a prompt reply.