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Source: ONE News -
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The victim of an Inland Revenue Department mistake has come forward demanding answers from the IRD.
On Tuesday, ONE News revealed how Inland Revenue had sent confidential tax details, including a refund, to the wrong person.
The victim of the mistake, Gareth Davies, has now come forward after seeing the story.
Davies reckons someone at the IRD should lose their job.
"I was absolutely outraged at what IRD couLd do. (A) massive organisation like this and they're going round making mistakes all the time," he says.
Davies is seeing red because the IRD owes him over $800.
Last week the IRD popped his refund and all his private details in the post. But instead of sending it to Davies, they sent it to Nelson woman Hope Bibby by mistake.
Bibby is a complete stranger to Davies, so she called ONE News to investigate.
"I rang you guys straight away because I just think that it happens too often and they don't get accountable for their mistakes," says Bibby.
So ONE News went to the IRD for an explanation. It turned out that such a big breach of privacy started with one small mistake. Someone at IRD had stuffed Davies' letter in the wrong envelope.
IRD Group Manager Customer Services Heather Daly puts the mistake down to human error.
Luckily for Davies it fell into honest hands.
"They could have withdrawn all my funds from my bank. They could have done anything they wanted to. They could have accessed all my IRD details and absolutely screwed up my whole life," he says.
Now an investigation is underway at Inland Revenue.
"We regret the error. We do not want to want it happen again. We shall take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again," says Daly.
The department has also apologised to Davies over the phone but he's not going to let it slide.
"I think I'm entitled to a bit more than that. It wasn't really a personal apology," he says.
Davies says the refund will go towards paying off his student loan - when he finally gets it that is.
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