AN 85-YEAR-OLD Army veteran was left “stressed” after bailiffs – wrongly informed he owed hundreds of pounds in parking fines – threatened to take possessions from his home ‘whether he was there or not’.

Somerset County Council has since admitted there was an error due to an incorrectly registered vehicle and apologised to 85-year-old Michael O’Loughlin.

The first Mr O’Loughlin, who served in the Army for six years, heard of his non-existent debt was when a leaflet was posted through the letterbox of his home in Queen Street, Taunton, from an agency acting for the council.

He said: “It said I owed £422 and that I’d ignored reminders and previous attempts to recover the money.

“It said a bailiff had called to ‘take control of your goods’ and that if I didn’t respond they’d get my goods ‘whether I was present or not’ – which sounds like they would force entry into my home to take things.

“Although it had my address on it, it was someone else’s name and the postcode wasn’t mine.

“I was frightened of going out in case they came back and broke my door down.

“It was upsetting and I’ve never owed anyone any money in my life.”

Mr O’Loughlin’s family pointed out the mistake to the council, who called off the bailiffs.

He added: “They’ve apologised but I’m pretty annoyed by it all – it’s caused me no end of stress.

“What if I’d been on holiday and come home to find someone had broken in and taken some of my belongings?”

A Somerset County Council spokesman admitted its agent had targeted the wrong person.

She added: “We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience and upset caused to Mr O’Loughlin.

“The letter was delivered due to an incorrectly registered vehicle at the address in question.

“We stopped all recovery action as soon as we were made aware of this and will investigate further to identify the correct address of the vehicles owner.”