money withdrawn from mums account advice needed

opinions4u

shortcrust wrote: »

My guess is that one of them knows more than they're letting on.

This. Which one's aged between 15 and 22? Start there.

dalesrider

pqrdef wrote: »

And she needs the bank to co-operate,

Thread here And here we have a tread about a bank breaching DPA....

Now you can't have it both ways.

Clearly the M-I-L needs to have someone take control of her finances.

Be that by 3rd party mandate or full blown power of attorney.

Time to sit everyone down and have a full and frank talk about the £700.
After asking M-I-L if she knows.

jonesMUFCforever

If there is suspicions of dementia IMO the bank will reject a 3rd party authority as the customer may not be of a sound mind to authorise it and may have been put under pressure to do so by a family member.

In this case a PoA through the court of protection would be the only option.

As for the cheque encashment I would get a letter written to the bank (signed by the customer) stating she did not authorise its encashment. They will then check its CCTV but will not let you see it unless you obtain a court order.
They might be able to hint at who cashed it - if it is a family member then you have 2 choices - inform the police or forget about it.

agrinnall

I'm not convinced that any bank is able to process a cheque written out to "pay cash" these days. As far as I'm aware every cheque has to be paid into an account. So if that's what was written I would be asking the bank what they did with the cheque.

sitcom321

agrinnall wrote: »

I'm not convinced that any bank is able to process a cheque written out to "pay cash" these days. As far as I'm aware every cheque has to be paid into an account. So if that's what was written I would be asking the bank what they did with the cheque.

Must admit I thought if you wrote a cheque to "pay cash" you could only draw the cash yourself I thought you had to write a name or account on the cheque if you were writing it to pay someone else. We are going to get POA and probably jus forgey5 thr 700 and draw a libe under it. Galling as it is but cant see what else we can do

DCFC79

sitcom321 wrote: »

Galling as it is but cant see what else we can do

You can get the bank to check the cctv.

dalesrider

DCFC79 wrote: »

You can get the bank to check the cctv.

Which would require the police to request.

That would require M-I-L to report. From the sounds of it not something she would be inclined to do.

Even if the bank were to do it without the police. It would only be for the account holder to request. Even then I think they would say no.
Add in the fact CCTV is usually stored for a max of 30 days. Unless a police request is used to hold.
Given the Op said this was over a month ago. I would say no chance of it still being available, even if they would let anyone look at it.

lawstudent

opinions4u wrote: »

This. Which one's aged between 15 and 22? Start there.

That is such a ridiculous and rude thing to say. Just because someone is young doesn't mean they are a thief or liar. In fact older people are more likely to have money worries in their life with bills to pay etc. Imagine if people went round making blanket statements like this about older people. For example "Pensioners are all racist / senile."

opinions4u

lawstudent wrote: »

That is such a ridiculous and rude thing to say.

It really isn't. Fraud like the one described is not unheard of in a domestic environment. Family member stealing from family member. It's unpleasant but it is the most likely explanation.

Assuming it is the explanation (and it is possible that an outsider did it, but who had access to the he cheque book?) then you have a small group of people to look at. I don't know the OP's family situation, beyond "3 sons, a sister and a granddaughter". There may not even be a 15-22 year old in the unit.

Starting with the sister - why would she do it? It's not impossible, but it really is the sort of relationship that makes you less likely to pinch stuff.

So that would bring you to other occupants. From experience of dealing with fraud claims in banks I have seen it happen far too many times. While it usually involves an ATM and the parent or grandparent saying money has been pinched it is remarkable how many times that ATM was close to the school or work place of the claimant's teenage relative. When you ask the claimant to sign a form confirming they will assist in prosecuting the offender many will hold back until they've had an awkward conversation with somebody at home. Occasionally they would come back and name their child and support a prosecution. Often they would never return.

Just because someone is young doesn't mean they are a thief or liar.

And just because I said to start asking the questions of anybody in the family group aged between 15 and 22 doesn't mean I have in any way said that all youths are thieves and liars, does it?

As a law student do you think it's right to twist somebody's words to create a sentence that is a million miles from what is said? Shameful on your part.

As a law student do you think trying to get to the bottom of this should start with asking questions of those least likely to have stepped out of line or those most likely? Because like it or not if a family member has stepped out of line here the age group I pinpointed is where to start - my own experience over two decades tells me that.

In fact older people are more likely to have money worries in their life with bills to pay etc.

Now who's making sweeping statements? Can you back this up with any statistics?

Here's a link to something I was reading the other day from a cause that does a lot of good. I've edited a chunk and included it below.

"According to the research of debt charity Step Change, it’s the under 25s who seem to have the biggest trouble with debt ... when compared to other age groups. A third of 22,262 young adults sought help with Step Change, in comparison to less than a quarter of those aged 25-39 and even less of the groups aged over 40 years of age"

Imagine if people went round making blanket statements like this about older people. For example "Pensioners are all racist / senile."

Are you really stupid or just trying to be really stupid? I haven't said all young people are thieves. If you can show me where I did then fine, but I didn't. So your comparison sentence to what I posted above is so far off the mark it's utterly pointless. If English isn't your first language I can forgive the misrepresentation.

Somebody has apparently defrauded this poor woman. There's a good chance it's a family member. If it is a family member it will, most likely, be somebody from or close to the age group I pinpointed. That doesn't mean it will be. But it is, absolutely, where to ask question first. Unless you want to waste a lot of time.

dalesrider

lawstudent wrote: »

That is such a ridiculous and rude thing to say. Just because someone is young doesn't mean they are a thief or liar. In fact older people are more likely to have money worries in their life with bills to pay etc. Imagine if people went round making blanket statements like this about older people. For example "Pensioners are all racist / senile."

Sadly from experience this is true.

But there are other options here. Carer or anyone else that may have had access to the house.
Is the stub still in the book? Not unknown for fraudsters to remove the whole cheque and stub so its not easy to tell if its missing.


It is also not unknown for older people to give a cheque to a family member or friend money for services rendered or to help them. Then tell them NOT TO SAY ANYTHING. As they do not want to upset or cause issues with other family members.

Given, we are advised that the account holder is not in the best mental frame of mind. Maybe she sent someone to get the cash to cover her while in hospital.
So it is possible there is a stash of cash sat in a purse or elsewhere in the house.