Autistic brother stole mums jewellery and sold to post cash for gold

bells_on_it

Hi, I'm not sure whether this is the correct place to post this but i'm just looking for some advice???
My brother is autistic and we have just discovered that in the last 3 months he's sent in 3 packets all of my mothers jewellery, collected over the last 40 years, family hierlooms from her late mother or my father as gifts, to Post Cash For Gold. The jewellery was worth in excess of £2k, probably a lot more, though he only got a total of £170 for the stuff.
The reason i'm writing is because my brother has a childs writing and had sent in even money - he'd sent in £1 coins thinking they were gold and over 500g of items he'd sent in had no value, this including watches, coins such as 10ps ebcause he thought they were silver, £1 coins, cufflinks etc but this did not ring any alarm bells with the company neither did the fact he'd requested the payments in cash, or the fact this was clearly womens jewellery including antique jewellery with a lot of precious stones in and was being sold by a male. They asked for no proof of ownership and just took the gold and paid a fraction of what the items were worth, allegedly disposing of all the non value items, including watches my father paid £170 for 30 years ago and £1 coins, and also allegedly disposing of emeralds, rubies, diamonds etc.
My mum is at her wits end and obviously devastated and I've had to break the news to her that all of her jewellery has inevitably been melted down and the stones removed and sold on and we don't know what to do or whether we even have a leg to stand on??? Also have massive concerns that if this has happened to us then it is possible these people are handling stolen goods - family heirlooms etc, without taking any steps to ensure that the items were legally sold to them.
I just cannot believe this goes on.
Has anyone any advice???

robpw2

not really any advice but i have some questions
what have the company said'?
why was the jewlery if it is worth so much left in a place where it could be accessed by your brother
how old is your brother?
did no-one notice him sending in parcels

somethingcorporate

Your brother has committed a crime I am afriad and I am not really sure how the company have done anything wrong (unless he is a minor).

They make their money from buying things for less than they are worth and selling them on so doing what they did is just what they do anyway.

I really don't think you have any rights here what so ever and the jewellery is long gone.

Sorry

bells_on_it

Hi, they haven't said a lot, they wouldn't give any information at first because of the data protection act so I had to get my brother to give them permission. My brother is 25, but he's got the mind of a child, we just never thought he'd do something like that, we just didn't think he'd even know what to do but I guess these cash for gold adverts are everywhere so i guess he thought if he could find anything gold or shiny it might give him money, he's taken money from my parents in the past so i guess maybe they should have hidden anything valuable away, hindsight is a wonderful thing....
No, no-one noticed, he must have been intercepting the postman in the morning as his bedroom was on the front of the house, he must have been watching out for him as the post had to be signed for. I just wish we'd noticed before he'd fleeced the whole lot. You just would never expect anyone in your family to do that

bells_on_it

Yeah he has, but he's autistic but I guess that doesn't make any difference in the eyes of the law. Its just more frustrating that the company does not take more steps to ensure that they're recieving legitamate goods, technically I could walk into someones house take some jewellery and sell it to them, they don't itemise anything so there would be no way of it even being linked back to me as I could say it was my own items, the items are melted down therefore you would never find the item to prove anything. He had tried to sell some jewellery to a pawn shop which they bought 1 bracelet but told us as it was womens jewellery they advised him if he had anymore he had to bring in a reciept or proof of ownership - this doens't happen with the postal companies.

pinkshoes

Being autistic doesn't necessarily make someone mentally !!!!!!!!

He was obviously bright enough to understand that he could send the jewellery away for cash, so you really can't blame the company! Lots of people have handwriting that looks like a child's!

Short of calling the police and having him charged with theft, there is nothing you can do other than keeping items of value out of his reach in future.

fluffnutter

pinkshoes wrote: »

Being autistic doesn't necessarily make someone mentally !!!!!!!!

He was obviously bright enough to understand that he could send the jewellery away for cash, so you really can't blame the company! Lots of people have handwriting that looks like a child's!

Short of calling the police and having him charged with theft, there is nothing you can do other than keeping items of value out of his reach in future.

He's also switched on enough to intercept the postman (seemingly) so he might well be trying to hide his actions. In which case, this suggests he knows he's up to no good. But I don't know the guy and I'm not an expert on autism. But autistic or not, the OP's parents need to talk to him about what he's done.

As harsh as it sounds, I do believe this is a family issue. The companies couldn't possibly authenticate every item they receive and diverting attention towards them is simply avoiding the issue that the OP's parents need to face: they need to take steps to prevent their son being able to so this again. 'Hindsight' doesn't even come in to it: he's stolen before. What happened then? Was he spoken to? If he simply can't understand the consequences of stealing due to being autistic then the OP's parents should do the sensible (and responsible) thing and remove any opportunity.

bells_on_it

Hi, i agree that he was bright enough to figure that out and be sneaky enough to seek out the postie before anyone so he could sign for it, but he wont understand what he's done, has no concept of value or sentimentality amongs other things, he used the money to buy cd's be already had, hes basically obsessed with music, my parents are always giving him money when he needs it. He's severe enough to have been in special schools all of his life.
I'm not really blaming them, moreso voicing concern for whats happened and what can be happening to others, there are no security checks to prevent this sort of thing happening, people could be robbing from others and selling the items to the company. If they'd have requested proof of ownership this wouldn't have been able to happen.

bells_on_it

My parents are definitely going to have to do something about this, i have suggested councelling or something, because it doesn't appear he understands the severity of what he's done, I quite agree that he's been sneaky and have been on at my parents to properly deal with this and have made some suggestions as to how we can intercept post in the future and for them to have a word with the postman. He clearly must understand what he's doing, like you say the lengths he went to cover up what he was doing again which I've told my parents they need to deal with, i'd almost want them to go to the police over it.
I just think there needs to be some sort of protection for innocent victims like my mother, people whos jewellery is going missing and send down this route, they don't even keep an inventory or description of these items which means that if someone was suspected of theft and had gone down this route then they wouldn't even be able to trace the item back to the thief. In addition, they disposed of (which i would imagine sold off as there were working watches and £1 coins) without giving any money for them so they're scamming people who don't understand what they're doing.

bells_on_it

When i say he's being sneaky so knows he's wrong he still doesn't understand what he's doing.

fluffnutter

bells_on_it wrote: »

Hi, i agree that he was bright enough to figure that out and be sneaky enough to seek out the postie before anyone so he could sign for it, but he wont understand what he's done, has no concept of value or sentimentality amongs other things, he used the money to buy cd's be already had, hes basically obsessed with music, my parents are always giving him money when he needs it. He's severe enough to have been in special schools all of his life.
I'm not really blaming them, moreso voicing concern for whats happened and what can be happening to others, there are no security checks to prevent this sort of thing happening, people could be robbing from others and selling the items to the company. If they'd have requested proof of ownership this wouldn't have been able to happen.

I get what you're saying and understand why. But how could the companies realistically do this? What would constitute 'proof of ownership'? If I send off my (hypothetical) gold necklace that's been knocking around for years (who knows where it came from, I certainly can't remember. It might have been my grandmother's, I might have been given it when I was younger), then how do I prove it's mine? Do you see what I'm getting at? You could apply that argument to anything that anyone ever sells ranging from ads in the local paper to stuff on ebay. It's just not possible to 'prove' ownership.