A former pigeon fancier has won his two-year fight for compensation from the taxman after he faced demands for £25,000 in back tax.

The Inland Revenue Adjudication, which probes complaints against the revenue, has agreed to a settlement with Dino Reardon, 65, whose wife, Olive, had become ill as a result of the tax demand.

But Mr Reardon - who has "pigeon lung", a respiratory disease - said today his battle to prevent others suffering the same fate will go on.

Mr Reardon was the victim of a catalogue of tax blunders.

Inland Revenue investigators wrongly claimed he ran a business and received incapacity benefit and a £5,000 pension.

And they were unable to get his tax code right, presenting him with 26 different versions in about 18 months.

"I got a telephone call from the adjudicator who said the Inland Revenue had agreed to pay compensation and that he was arranging a settlement," he said.

"Then I got a letter saying they would write explaining how they think the complaint could be settled."

Meanwhile, Mr Reardon has written to Chancellor Gordon Brown, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and left-wing MP Tony Benn as part of his plan to lobby every MP to get the law changed.

Mr Reardon, of Skipton, said: "I want the rules changed in favour of the little people like me - pensioners and ordinary folk who find themselves unjustly hounded by the revenue.

"It is completely wrong that a poor pensioner like me should have to fight like this to prove I am innocent.

"I am asking the MPs to change the law so that the Inland Revenue has to prove you owe tax before they can make demands. They should not be able to demand money and force you to prove you don't owe it.

"They demanded the tax from me - making out I was guilty - and then said 'you must prove you didn't do it'."

Mr Reardon set about his own investigation by studying Inland Revenue law at Skipton Library and discovered the revenue had not followed its own code of practice.

It had wrongly claimed he ran a business, which in fact belonged to Olive - who has paid all her tax dues.

She has since given up the pigeon breeding and corn merchant enterprise she ran.

A spokesman for the adjudicator's office said all issues were considered in the strictest confidence.

"Unless a complainant gives our office permission to discuss their case we cannot say anything," he said.

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