Elderly person had money taken

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A bit wordy, but I wanted to set the scene. My Wife has an elderly relative (her Mums cousin) who is in her 80s. She's still mostly independent, but health is not what it was and she had a stroke earlier this year that has restricted her mobility quite a bit. As a consequence she has been relying on other people to help out with her shopping, mostly my Wife and her Father.

It has come to light today that she also was offered help by a neighbour. She foolishly let him use her bank card to do some shopping for her. On receiving her bank statement it turns out he also did some shopping and cash withdrawal for himself to the tune of a £1000. She has confronted him about this and he apparently didn't deny it and said he would pay her back, but no money has appeared and now he's not answering the phone or responding to messages.

Predictably the bank and Age UK have both advised her that it's tough luck as she willingly gave her card and PIN over. I completely understand the bank's position.

Is there any point in her pursuing this with the police or anyone else? Whilst she must bare some blame for handing over access to her account that shouldn't give someone the right to take advantage of what I would think of as a vulnerable person.

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InitialDave said:

Do you know who the person is specifically, or just "a neighbour"?

I don’t know this person, but she would know where they live. They are an actual neighbour of hers as far as I know.

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Planet Claire said:

You can contact her local authority adult safeguarding team. You may be able to log the concern online, otherwise you'll have to wait until Monday morning when the office opens.

Thanks, I will look into that.

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autumnsum said:

Why don't people phone the police in these situations?!

Because on phoning the bank and Age UK she was told it was her fault, nothing to be done. My Wife’s going to ring the cops and see what they say

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MrBen986 said:

Has anyone actually gone to see this person? I'm the least violent person around and not advocating more than a few large guys visiting and asking him when he's going to be paying her back. It may get nowhere, but he sounds like a bully and may well wet himself when faced with somebody bigger than him?

That might be so, but I'm no dominator of.landings and given the area its in I'll pass. I'm not the sort of.person who knows any handy types who might help me out either.

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tighnamara said:

blueST said:

Because on phoning the bank and Age UK she was told it was her fault, nothing to be done. My Wife’s going to ring the cops and see what they say

That is pretty worrying if both the bank and age U.K. have actually said it is “her fault”

I don't know the actual words used, but that was her take away from it.

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I spoke to the police today, very sympathetic, they’ve taken the details and given me a log number. They’ve put it down as a theft and said someone will be in touch.

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InitialDave said:

The way the OP worded it, they bought some stuff for themselves and withdrew cash, for a total of £1000 worth.

So the bank account should show purchases at a time and place that can be correlated to them doing so.

I don’t think it's just "they withdrew a grand in cash".

As I understand it, it was multiple transactions, purchases and cash totalling about £1k.

I hope people will understand now the police are looking into things I’m not going to give a blow by blow commentary. I will update when we are further down the line.

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Just an update on this. The Police have said the prospect of any sort of investigation hinges on there being some CCTV from the cash machines showing the guy using the card. I think they have spent the last week hunting for that, but we’re not hopeful given the withdrawals we’re getting in for 2 months ago now. The PC is visiting the accused today as well. It’s slow progress, but the wheels are turning.

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A bit of progress on this. Information is a bit third-hand as the police are dealing direct with the elderly victim now. No CCTV has turned up, which is disappointing. However, today we’ve heard that the guy has been arrested, he’s denied the accusations, but seems the police are going to charge him still. They’ve told the victim she’ll need to be prepared to go to court. I don’t know what evidence they might have beyond the victim’s bank statements and statement of what’s happened, but I guess they must feel confident they have something.

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Bigends said:

BrettMRC said:

blueST said:

A bit of progress on this. Information is a bit third-hand as the police are dealing direct with the elderly victim now. No CCTV has turned up, which is disappointing. However, today we’ve heard that the guy has been arrested, he’s denied the accusations, but seems the police are going to charge him still. They’ve told the victim she’ll need to be prepared to go to court. I don’t know what evidence they might have beyond the victim’s bank statements and statement of what’s happened, but I guess they must feel confident they have something.

Should be 90 days available on those CCTV systems.

I dont think many (if any) external cashpoints are covered - only those within banks may have some CCTV cover

From what I understand, the proper bank cash points often take a snapshot of the user from the camera in the fascia of the machine which are kept for quite a while. Unfortunately in this case they have used the independent type machines you get in local shops which don’t have a built in camera are dependent on shop’s own cctv.

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Just to wrap this one up, the police/CPS decided this month that no further action in the end due to lack of evidence. The guy stuck to claiming he did withdraw the money, but that he had been asked to and had given it to the lady.