Hidden financial crime of relatives who prey on the elderly

From: Mrs S Garbutt, Ladywell Road, Boroughbridge, York.

the reported case of Michael Pain (Yorkshire Post, January 21) highlights the increasing incidence of financial abuse of elderly relatives.

This hidden crime, too obnoxious for many to comprehend, is in our communities. Recent reported abuses include a daughter who stole £60,000 from her mother.

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We have an ageing population, many suffering with dementia, and offspring whose growing debts of mortgages, school and university fees tempt them to consider plundering their parents’ reserves.

The charity Action on Elder Abuse defines financial abuse as “a single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person”. Financial abuse is another name for stealing or defrauding someone.

Their experience indicates the majority of victims are female and aged over 80 and the perpetrators are mostly children aged 41-60. Common issues are a) sons or daughters attempting to justify their actions on the basis that they are simply obtaining their inheritance in advance and b) the extensive misuse of Powers of Attorney.

A Power of Attorney should protect those with dementia but a refusal to register leaves them vulnerable.

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On occasions, banks and solicitors are found to have assisted in the misuse of Enduring Powers of Attorney.

Only the new Lasting Power of Attorney needs to be registered with the Court of Protection before it is used and even then there is little to prevent a determined attorney from financially abusing an incapacitated donor.

Unregistered Powers of Attorney allow a determined relative to influence decisions and AEA’s experience is that many alleged perpetrators of large scale financial abuse rarely deny having access to or spending large amounts of money belonging to a particular older person.

They merely contend that the older person gave them specific permission to spend the money in question. But the vulnerability of the victim means that they are unable to categorically deny that such permission was given.

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Local authorities should have a safeguarding team protecting older vulnerable adults but no vulnerable adult is able to speak for themselves. They often do not acknowledge their limitations; they confabulate and take as their own, ideas presented to them.

Doctors do not see it as their responsibility to advise relatives on legal issues. Solicitors are ignorant of many of the symptoms.

As with the Pain case, families do not believe abuse would happen in their family. I fear we shall hear of many more cases in the coming years.