The fragile 91-year-old flew
into a panic after receiving a threatening letter from bureaucrats
threatening to boot him out of his home of 20 years over just six weeks
of unpaid rent.
The grandfather-of-three was so terrified by the
bullying notice that he tried to dash down to his local Post Office to
pay up, but collapsed on the way due to stress.
Recovering at home, the furious veteran said: "The Germans were horrible but they treated me better than the council did.
"This has been a hell of a business, the council haven't been very helpful."
The
war hero was a private in the British army and was captured by the
Nazis in 1944 after the bloody Battle of Monte Cassino, south of Rome,
during which 55,000 allied troops died.
He has lived in the same
council flat in Croydon, south London, for 20 years and described his
horror at receiving the letter threatening to turf him out of his home.
He said: "I went in to pay the money and there were a couple of people waiting to be seen.SWNS
Councillors
have now apologised and vowed to improve their IT system so vulnerable
tenants aren't sent threatening automatically-generated letters again.
A
spokesman for Croydon Council said: "Mr Lawson received an
automatically generated letter because his rent was six weeks overdue.
"As
soon as we realised that this had gone out, we rang early on Friday
afternoon to reassure him that he would not be evicted and we wanted to
help.
"We visited on Monday afternoon to offer a range of support to assist in future.
"We're
improving our data and systems to help tenants in difficulty even
sooner so people like Mr Lawson are less likely to get automatically
generated arrears letters in future."
Source
Friday, 25 September 2015
'I was treated better by the Nazis' - War hero threatened with EVICTION by council
The Germans were horrible but they treated me better than the council did
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