Mum being gullible

jockjames

Can any one help? Recently my father passed away and my mother inherited a tidy some of money. Mum has a very trusting and generous character and if she can help some one she will. I’ve recently discovered she is changing cheques via her bank for a local builder and his team circa £3000 every week so they don’t have to put the cheques through cash converters and pay the charges such companies demand (what!!! I hear you scream well that was my reply). Aside form the obvious “rip off” she faces should the builders take flight before the cheques clear is there any other dangers she faces e.g. tax burdens I need to make her aware of. I’ve yet to confront her over the above situation but as you can imagine I’m very worried for her and not to mention fuming she could be so gullible.:mad:

Many thanks

Lee

aj3001

Cheques can bounce up to six months after clearing, I would tell her to stop immediatly and get her to contact the police

arnie&caseysma!

And apart from the obvious risks to your mum it sounds to me like they are involved in some sort of tax dodge aswell......

J_P_S

i work with cheques, tell her to stop immediately, they are clearly dodgy otherwise they would pay them into their own bank account.

changkra

It may be worth your while to go down to your local cop station and ask to speak to the duty inspector and see what he/she says, they may want to monitor the situation.

maninthestreet

The term 'Money Laudering' springs to mind....
Reporting this to the police may lead to the arrest of your mother, as well
as the builders.

Mark7799

Unlikely to be money laundering if she is paying in cheques.

Who are the cheques actually made payable to?

A few possibilities

1. A tax dodge exercise

2. The builders trying to reduce their bank charges

3. If your mother's bank get wind of what's happening they may ask her in to discuss the matter

Try and get her to stop doing this asap

hollydays

Try this helpline-Action on Elder Abuse,includes financial abuse.
0808 8088141
https://www.elderabuse.org.uk

or email them.

maninthestreet

Mark7799 wrote:

Unlikely to be money laundering if she is paying in cheques.

Not necessarily so - £3000/per week = £150,000+ pa - this is a LOT of money passing through a personal bank account. The bank has a legal duty to investigate any activity they consider to be 'out of the ordinary' in terms of previous account usage - I'm surprised they havent already contacted the account holder questioning what these deposits are - even if it's only to determine whether or not a personal bank account is being used for business purposes.

jockjames

thanks for the email address i'll drop them a line today

jockjames

maninthestreet wrote:

Not necessarily so - £3000/per week = £150,000+ pa - this is a LOT of money passing through a personal bank account. The bank has a legal duty to investigate any activity they consider to be 'out of the ordinary' in terms of previous account usage - I'm surprised they havent already contacted the account holder questioning what these deposits are - even if it's only to determine whether or not a personal bank account is being used for business purposes.

:beer: cheers for this - i really need to make her aware of what she is letter her self in for. Can't really tell you what i want to do to the builder but if i did it would really upset mum and that’s the last thing i want to do. I'd rather put across the issues you guys have mentioned above and hopefully she will see sense