Financial abuse?

[clockworks]

A friend has suspicions that someone she knows is taking advantage of an elderly lady. The person in question has financial LPA (but is not in the will) for the elderly lady, and has taken over £20k from her bank account to pay for a house extension. That the money for the extension came from the elderly lady's account is provable - friend works for the builder, and processed the invoice. The elderly lady has no relatives in this country, and doesn't live in the house.

It may be perfectly innocent, and done as a gift or a loan, but it may be straight theft/fraud.

Keep quiet, or report? If report, who to - police, Office of the Public Guardian?

[RichardJS]

If the the elderly lady can be regarded as "vulnerable" (and it sounds like she might be) then she should be assigned a social worker. Social services could then become involved and ensure everything is OK, LPA or not.

My mother-in-law has increasing dementia and her home carers recommended that she was formally declared as vulnerable so that she would be assigned a Social Worker to facilitate her move from hospital (after a fall) into a care home. The Social Worker helped a lot, despite my wife and her brother having LPA.

[clockworks]

Thanks - Social Services sounds like a much more sensible and "humane" first point of contact.

[Mojooo]

The social worker may be a good 'soft' point of contact to see what he/she knows or thinks but if you are suggesting some form of coercion is going on then its a Police matter.

Difficulty of course is if the victim is 'willingly' giving the money over.

[faa77]

If the person has FLPA then what can you do? The whole point of an FLPA is someone who is trusted by the owner and they have.......... power of attorney.

Or am I missing something?

I'm not saying it's right what they're doing, i'm just unsure what can be achieved.

[carinaman]

Mojooo said:

The social worker may be a good 'soft' point of contact to see what he/she knows or thinks but if you are suggesting some form of coercion is going on then its a Police matter.

Difficulty of course is if the victim is 'willingly' giving the money over.

A 'gift' can be theft:

Wikipedia on R v Hinks [2000] UKHL 53 said:

'In 1996 Miss Hinks was friendly with a 53-year-old man, John Dolphin, who was of limited intelligence. She was his main carer. During 1996 Mr Dolphin withdrew around £60,000 from his building society account, which was deposited in Miss Hinks's account. In 1997 Hinks was charged with theft.'

from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Hinks

Edited by carinaman on Monday 16th September 02:42