stolen money help!!

carol53_2

right here it goes... long story but need some advice!!!
and for anyone who wants to be rude about spelling wording etc. please keep it to yourself , were going through a very stressful time as it is...:(
so in june last year my nana passed away, she had been suffering from Alzheimer's. she had been in a care home for the last 3 and a half years of her life. Its my dads mother , my dad has 5 brothers and sisters. in the later years of my nanas life we didn't have much contact with my dads brothers and sisters...
so after the funeral had taken place , one of my aunties lets call her Anne, called up and asked for money towards the flowers , which was fine she wanted 10 pounds from each of us and that she would settle the money for the funeral with money in my nanas bank account until the insurance money came through.
so a couple of weeks later we get a message from one of my other auntie lets call her Jean, she left a message for me on facebook to get my dads mobile number and i wasnt allowed to tell anyone she wanted to get in touch with him?!? never mind a couple of days later my auntie Jean phones my dads and explained they had went to sort through my nanas finances ONLY TO FIND OUT HER BANK ACCOUNT WAS CLOSED!!! she had mobility issues and alzheimers so never spent a penny and all her toiletries/clothing was paid for from auntie Jean. so Jean advised my dad they were suspicious of auntie Anne as she had had the bank card for nanas account, so they contacted the post office to get a statement so after 2 weeks they finally arrived.....
£300 a week had been going in my nanas account for the last 3 and a half years calculating about £50,000!!! all gone!!! so jean confronted anne to ask about the money, she claimed she knew nothing about it... Jean told anne she had 2 days to come back to her with a explanation... so 2 days later she turned up! she admitted stealing the money, she said she was struggling for money and thats why she did it... this from a woman who has 3 jobs and two sons at home who she gets £60 a week from!! every friday the money was put in the bank and every friday Annne went and withdrew the full amount TO THE PENNY!!! Jean told Anne she had to tell the whole family what she had done and then they would sort out what the next option was....
Anne rang everyone apart from my dad, at this point anne didnt know my dad knew , but after she failed to call him he contacted her, she broke down... admitting it all kept asking if we were going to the police etc... dad explained to her the family were going to sit down and decide what to do.
so the following week all the brothers and sisters sat down and discussed what to do... they all agreed that my nana wouldnt want them going to the police so they came up with a plan that she should pay by monthly instalments £300 a month paying the eldest first (dad being the eldest)then onto the next.... Anne agreed...
so the first month comes and as my dads the oldest he was to get paid first.. No contact from anne. so my dad phoned her to ask what was going on... she said she didnt have any money, and in her words "youl get what i can afford" she started to get nasty.. she sent the £100 up with one of the other sisters Joanne ! now Joanne had been acting a bit funny about the situation, from the get go ,saying she didnt want any money back , Joanne and Anne were always together.. and when the rest of the paper work came back from bank we discovered it was Joanne who had closed the bank account!!!
Now this is where it gets complicated.....
the following month Anne turned up with £170 !! not good enough my dad explained to her they were being lenient enough with her and she was taking the mick... she got angry again!! saying again hel get what she can afford... so just 3 weeks ago she was due to pay again, never turned up no contact ,no nothing when my dad phoned her and her husband (who we thought knew anyway) came on the phone swearing and shouting at my dad saying there "not getting nothing from them!!! its Joanne turn to get paid?!"
so the family have now decided enough is enough there going to the police!!! well well well...
the police are saying they wont get involved that its not a criminal case, we need to present it to a solicitor and they present the case to the police. we have phone many many solicitors been to the law centre citizens advice, no one can help they say its not a criminal case ... how is this?! she has admitted to it all we have all the paper work she paid the home in total £19,000. the rest gone! taken STOLEN!!!! and we cant do anything, we rang AGE uk as they have a legal dept and they said there is a fee of £1000!! just for a letter , my parents/aunties do not have that sort of cash!! we don't know where to turn looks like shes going get away with it!!!!
Shes swanning around the town where they all live (its a small town where everyone knows everyone). it has now came out that her sons were going to my nanas house before she went into the home going through the place taking cash!! he never went to the funeral, and now i think we know why. We all think the moneys in her husbands bank, they really are the lowest of the low!!
Now there was no Power of Attorney until the last few months of my nanas life, and that was joint with auntie Jean and anne , as she was the one that paid the care home, so she had access to the bank account.
can anyone please help... or do we not have a hope in hells chance of anything getting done, we all understand were never going to see a penny of the money but we want her to get what she deserves!! any advice really appreciated!!!
thanks x x x x x

Scorpio33

So if I am correct, the person with who was taking the money from the account (Jean and Anne) had power of Attorney?

If that is so (and if I am right), then techincally they have done nothing illegal. The power of attorney allows them to do what they like with the money.

If they were taking money without power of attorney, then think about what happens if you had money going missing from your account. The first thing you would do is ask you bank to investigate. If someone has been able to withdraw money from your bank without proper authority, then the bank has made an error and should refund all missing monies - the bank then chase whoever has comitted the fraud. If however the person has all proper authority (as would be the case with the power of attorney), then the bank has done nothing wrong and moreover, no crime has occured.

Morally of course, they are crooks - so I think your only hope is to pressure them into paying the money back or cutting them off from yourselves.

carol53_2

they only had it for the last 6 months of my nanas life:)

carol53_2

power of attorney i mean

Scorpio33

Hold on I've re-read.

So £300 a week was being taken out for 3 and a half years, totalling approx. 50k.

£19k of this has been paid to the carehome where nana lived, meaning £31k is unaccounted for. Joanne and Anne now admit they used the £31k on themselves.

The key to this is how Anne was able to withdraw the money. If the money was withdrawn with nana's consent, then how can you prove that nana didn't have an agreement with them that they can keep the extra money? It is the same as saying she went to the bank and withdrew £300 a week, paid money to the care home and then gave the rest to Anne & Joanne. Nothing has been stolen as such - if it is withdrawn with her consent.

carol53_2

no my nana had severe alzeimers . yes anne took the money to pay the home, thats what she was meant to do and what she was trusted to do, hence why she power of attorney. but she misused the rest of the money stealing it , which she admits to. joanne wasnt power of attorney, Jean was shes the one that wants to goto the police as her and anne had power of attorney only in the last 6 months of her life. so it was like the good auntie and the theif auntie that were power of attorney.joanne is the other sister that we belive she has something to do with it although we dont know for definate! surely anne can get something done to her as my nana wasnt of sound mind and she abused her trust? x x

carol53_2

my nana never told her to take the money and pay home as obviously she didnt really have a clue.. it was the rest of the family that told her to pay the care home as everyone trusted her , my nana didnt have a clue what was going on with her money x

kazwookie

If you think it is theft then go to the police and report it as such.

(I have to admit I find the op very hard to read)

carol53_2

me too and i wrote it ,im confused by the whole situation.....:)

CH27

carol53 wrote: »

my nana never told her to take the money and pay home as obviously she didnt really have a clue.. it was the rest of the family that told her to pay the care home as everyone trusted her , my nana didnt have a clue what was going on with her money x

Can you prove that?

DuckEggGingham

Anne only had POA for the last 6 months of nanas life? Before that her drawing money to pay the care home was on trust? Yet she drew more then the care home cost and pocketed it all for much longer then the 6 months?

Families can be horrible creatures at times.