Presumed guilty
Sir: Your correspondents who criticise Tessa Mayes must be living in the past (Letters, 10 March). In our Big Brother society, police are no longer friendly and civil servants are neither civil nor our servants.
My husband and I were interrogated a few years ago by two tax officers for three hours. We thought we had nothing to fear because we were innocent and welcomed them into our home. But we were quickly disabused. The officers couldn’t believe that we were living on as little as we were and were convinced that we had another, undeclared, source of income. But the burden of proof has now changed, and rather than they having to prove that we did, we had to prove that we didn’t. How do you prove a negative? We were unable to, and in a follow-up letter we were advised that, although the officers had been unable to find anything wrong, we shouldn’t relax because we could be checked up on again at any time. My husband was so traumatised that he was unable to eat or sleep for days. The foot in the door is of no worry to criminals who are used to living on the edge; but to innocent law-abiding people, it’s a life-shattering experience.
Virginia Price Evans Whitland, Carmarthenshire
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