Bungling council officers have repeatedly sent a blind resident letters in print, despite being asked to provide them in Braille.

Mr Rob Powell, 41, of Lanacre Avenue, in Grahame Park, says he has been sent printed letters by Barnet Council telling him that he is the subject of a tax fraud investigation and a court summons, due to an ongoing dispute over his bill.

Mr Powell says he is happy to pay any tax he owes, but has been left exasperated by the “sheer incompetence” of council officers, who may have breached disability laws.

Under the Disability Dis-crimination Act, councils must make “reasonable adjustments” for disabled people, including sending correspondence in Braille.

“I’ve asked them five or six times to write to me in Braille and they haven’t done anything about it,” he said.

“They’re threatening me totally unnecessarily, and then last week they sent me another letter issuing me with a court summons relating to my council tax bill for that year — again in print.

“The whole process has been riddled with sheer incompetence.”

Mr Powell says he first asked for his bills to be sent in Braille back in May 2006 and claims he was told on several occasions they could not provide them He is in dispute with the council over his tax bill for the last financial year because he was self- employed for part of it, and in December 2008 he was sent the letter to say he was being investigated.

He was also invited to an interview with Barnet Council to discuss the investigation, but says the location was totally inaccessible for someone with his disability.

He said: “I’ve suffered from depression in the past and getting a court summons and being accused of fraud is not something that helps your mental health equilibrium.”

A council spokesman in-sisted Mr Powell had been receiving council tax bills in Braille, although this was disputed by Mr Powell.

The spokesman said the other letters and the court summons Mr Powell had re-ceived were automatically generated when he failed to pay the correct amount of council tax, and could not be checked manually.

He added: “Mr Powell was aware that he had received reminder letters and a summons to court for failure to pay council tax and contacted our council tax department, but terminated the call before his needs could be assessed.

“Where we have been made aware of Mr Powell’s visual impairment, everything is done to accommodate his needs.”

Liz Woskett-Burton, legal rights adviser for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, said failure of local authorities to provide information in accessible formats was a major issue.

She said: “Sometimes you have to treat people differently to achieve real equality. It is completely unacceptable to place the emphasis on the disabled individual to provide the adjustment, by expecting him to get a third party to read the information.”