Has my mate got a leg to stand on - abuse of authority?

molerat

The bank have done nothing wrong as they have acted on instructions given to them by the account holder. The ex has mis used that authority and the police should be involved, the same as the con men spending little old ladies savings on their "business emergencies" etc.

meer53

alanq wrote: »

I don't think it would. With a joint account normally the funds are there for either party to do with as they wish. It is not the norm for two signatures to be required on a cheque to approve a transaction.

However, when someone is given Power Of Attorney they are being entrusted to spend the funds as directed by or for the benefit of the account holder. To spend for ones own benefit is theft.

In this case the account holder was not just been unlucky in their choice of person to trust but negligent in failing to cancel the POA and perhaps (depending on how long the withdrawals have been going on) for not checking his balances.

If the withdrawals were made "not using a card or a cheque" how is it known what the money was "all frittered away on"?

Re-reading the OP's first post, he mentions transactions to Itunes, Life Insurance, Car Insurance and Mobile Phone contracts. None of these happen in a flash, they must have been running for some time before the OP's friend noticed them. It would be interesting to know the timescale involved here, maybe the OP's friend is being a bit economical with the truth ? Not judging anyone, just my gut feeling.

stclair

Was a POA obtained or what it just a letter from the account holder stating I give permission for Joe Bloggs to deal on my account?

Taadaa

I had a similar situation with my nan. She would give her bank card to onw of her daughters and she was helping herself to extras. It only came to light when my nan had a stroke and one of the other sisters was given power of attorny. She bought a car and had the dd transferred to my nans account. Unfortunately because it is a blood relative they wouldn't report it. Good luck.

meer53

Taadaa wrote: »

I had a similar situation with my nan. She would give her bank card to onw of her daughters and she was helping herself to extras. It only came to light when my nan had a stroke and one of the other sisters was given power of attorny. She bought a car and had the dd transferred to my nans account. Unfortunately because it is a blood relative they wouldn't report it. Good luck.

Not quite sure what you mean about the blood relative thing, was it the DD that they wouldn't accept ?

My friends daughter was arrested and charged by the Police for using her Grans card to withdraw (over time) a five figure sum of money from her Grans account. Her Gran used to give her the card and PIN to get money for her but she abused it and spent the money on herself.

It came to light when another relative checked the Grans statements and noticed the balance. It got as far as court but was dropped as the Gran was diagnosed with Alzheimers fairly recently so her version of events couldn't be accepted as evidence.

stclair

Do people not check there accounts on a monthly basis anymore? or is that a thing of the past lol

meer53

stclair wrote: »

Do people not check there accounts on a monthly basis anymore? or is that a thing of the past lol

I check mine daily ! Text message every morning.

Taadaa

Just that was the reason why the family didnt go to the police.

Yorkie1

Spam reported - multiple random posts promoting the same thing

Nukumai

OP - your friend needs to take a copy of the banking mandate to his solicitor. Whether or not a crime has been committed will depend upon the scope of the letter of authority/mandate.