IRD issues 1240 dud cheques

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The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has admitted issuing 1240 dud cheques after a Westport man tried to bank one and had his bank funds frozen.

Ian Williams said he was told he had insufficient funds in his bank account when he tried to pay $330 worth of bills in Westport yesterday.

He said he was dumbfounded, as earlier in the week he had deposited a GST refund cheque from the IRD for his family's farm, plus his Stockton opencast mine pay cheque of about $2000.

The ASB Bank told him it had frozen all outgoings from his account because the IRD cheque had bounced, he said.

When he complained, the bank released his funds.

His tax agent had called the IRD which told her his GST cheque had been printed on inferior paper.

"It's the sort of thing you hear about in Monty Python," Mr Williams said.

IRD group manager, service delivery, Heather Daly, said 1240 refund cheques issued on November 3 were printed on incorrect paper.

"As the paper did not have the appropriate markings, banks were not able to accept the cheques."

The issue had been identified through a customer query, Mrs Daly said.

"The affected refund cheques were cancelled and we have been contacting customers and taking action to ensure they receive the payment, via direct credit or a new cheque, as soon as possible.

"We apologise to those affected for any delay and inconvenience. Immediate steps were taken to try to prevent any such error in future."

She would not reveal the total value of the dud cheques.