Power of Attorney Fraud

[SpeedBash]

Fraudsters once again taking advantage of lax systems.

Along with potentially being able to steal your house, nice little earners for those who are this way inclined.

[Blue62]

SpeedBash said:

Fraudsters once again taking advantage of lax systems.

Along with potentially being able to steal your house, nice little earners for those who are this way inclined.

The most disturbing aspect of the story is that the Office for Public Guardian advised the victim that the easiest way to resolve the problem was to say that she’d allowed the fraudsters to take over her financial affairs and then apply to have the power of attorney revoked!
Given the utter failure of the system to protect the vulnerable, who in their right minds would follow such advice?

There was a similar story recently about the land registry and property title and another about the ease with which you can set up a waste disposal business, I wonder how much of this has to do with the chipping away at government agencies as we look to streamline?

[J4CKO]

A chap locally was done for fraud in 2012 and went to prison, noticed him advertising this as a service.

Might be totally legit and paid his debt etc, but would be very wary using someone who has already been done for fraud.

[b0rk]

Blue62 said:

There was a similar story recently about the land registry and property title and another about the ease with which you can set up a waste disposal business, I wonder how much of this has to do with the chipping away at government agencies as we look to streamline?

I'd say the underlying problem is not one of chipping away at government agencies but that many pre-existing processes across the public sector are based on a principle of trust. In particular the assumption that the applicant is not trying to defraud the system.

So the requirement to prove identity generally is remarkably low and not validated to any real level. The fake sister should surely have been spotted by the validation process which probably indicates that process doesn't require a check against the General Register Office database, both for being a real person and second for being a sister.

[SpeedBash]

b0rk said:

I'd say the underlying problem is not one of chipping away at government agencies but that many pre-existing processes across the public sector are based on a principle of trust. In particular the assumption that the applicant is not trying to defraud the system.

So the requirement to prove identity generally is remarkably low and not validated to any real level. The fake sister should surely have been spotted by the validation process which probably indicates that process doesn't require a check against the General Register Office database, both for being a real person and second for being a sister.

It took officialdom over 35 years to close the Day of the Jackal loophole which was featured in the book from which it derives its name.

However, this fraud was going on well before it was highlighted in the book - although back in 1971 most processes were paper based, there still could have been amendments made to stamp out or reduce this fraud.

[W124Bob]

When my BiL applied for POA over his mothers financial affairs my wife and I were very surprised to find that she had been excluded. The deal had been that upon the death of the father my wife would take his place to jointly manage their mothers affairs. Brother and sister don't get along and he is very secretive around the arrangements, we do not even know what the care home fee arrangement is. At the very least sole POA should be a last resort, where there are multiple family members POA should be a joint arrangement. Now I know this won't stop all fraud, but there is a real lack of accountability to the current system at present.