A FORMER Army officer has said he will take the Government to the High Court if he is not paid £86,000 compensation in the next three weeks.

Retired soldier Major Richard Perkins, 88, claims he is owed the money after his pension was wrongly taxed for more than 40 years.

He has been involved in a seven-year wrangle with the Ministry of Defence and the Inland Revenue.

Mr Perkins, of Lastingham, near Pickering, North Yorkshire, was discharged from the Army in 1959 after he suffered a nervous breakdown.

Service personnel who are discharged for medical reasons are not supposed to pay tax on their pensions, but Mr Perkins is one of about 1,000 ex-service pensioners who have been wrongly taxed.

After five years of litigation, the MoD relented and he was reimbursed £20,000 for the income tax deducted.

Other servicemen in the same position have been awarded larger sums of compensation for all the years when they did not have the money.

Solicitors acting for Mr Perkins have now given the MoD and the Inland Revenue three weeks to agree £86,000 in compensation.

Mr Perkins said the figure was calculated using the Inland Revenue's own methods.

"I am one of many who have been treated disgracefully by the MoD," he said. "How many others are in the pipeline?

"In the past week, we have lost several more soldiers in the Middle East. If 100 have died, how many have been wounded and will be disabled for the rest of their lives as I am disabled?

"If they are disabled, are they to be treated by the MoD in this sort of way?"

Mr Perkins joined the Royal Marines in the 1930s and served with the 7th Border Regiment during the Second World War.

He said he would take his battle to the High Court to try to bring it to a quicker conclusion.

"I cannot see how they cannot pay, simply because they are breaking the law every single day by not paying," he added.

"One can do other things with one's retirement rather than fight these ghastly battles."

A spokeswoman for the MoD said she could not comment on individual cases.