Protection for elderly mother

Primrose

Who did yiu talk to when yiu contacted the police. A low level police officer? Take it to the top and ask for the contact details of the local Area police commander and contact him/her and explain that you don't think your reports of elder grooming or fraud were taken seriously.

In cases like this you need to talk to the organ grinder and not the monkey and be very assertive. I know how stressful this may be but ai also think you need to escalate yiur concerns further up the bank chain than the branch manager. Find out who the Regional Manager of the Bank is, or even a board director and direct your complain there. A lot of local bank managers are little more than senior clerks these days.

ih8stress

This is terribly sad. The neighbour sounds vile but unfortunately these days people are often allowed to get away with such despicable acts.

I also think the bank are being very irresponsible to be made aware of the situation and yet do little to help. Is it not possible to limit the daily spend allowance on the card to say £20 (even if tried at different locations) and for anything financial to need your authorisation (in person preferably, once id of you is firmly in place).
Can you set up alerts when transactions over a certain amount are made etc.

If there is a lot of money in the account, could the bulk of it be moved to a savings account without instant access or similar?

I don't know what part of the country you live in but can you approach your local MP, Age Concern, Citizen's Advice etc. Have you tried to ask a solicitor for advice (free half hour offer perhaps?).

I would personally be removing as much money as possible or stopping it being made accessible in the short term AND also putting any expensive items in the house elsewhere.

I don't think paying for your Mum's food shopping etc would stop it as the neighbour would just think of something else your Mum 'needs' to buy.

As long as the neighbour is allowed to get money from your Mum - with her apparent consent - then this will no doubt continue until the money is gone.

Sorry not to have anything positive to advise - notice Martin's Twitter says something about bbc5live and a relative being financially abused at the moment.

Saratoga241

Primrose thank you, this is very helpful

Saratoga241

Ih8stress thank you. Some actions I'd not considered in your post

ih8stress

Just logged in to tell you about the financial code of abuse but see that D_M_E mentioned this - worth checking it out.

You mentioned that you have third-party authority. If this means you have a debit card for the account, can you not move most of the money out to a 'safe account in your Mum's name' that she (and therefore her neighbour) have no access to without going through you somehow?

You could always set up automatic daily standing orders to 'drip feed' a daily small amount into perhaps.

elsien

Third party bank mandate only applies when person has capacity.

OP needs to be careful if they are querying mum's capacity to make the transactions that the bank doesn't decide to end the third party bank mandate on those grounds.
The whole point is that if mum has capacity (which is sounding as if this may need to be assessed) she can do as she likes with her money, can end the third party mandate at any point, and there is no legal authority for someone else to move the money elsewhere where she can't access it.

What have the local authority said?

Saratoga241

Ih8stress with the third party access, I set up the ability to go into the bank and talk about my mum's financial affairs and they also agreed to online access. The neighbour has managed to go into the bank twice now with my mum and remove my online access. It is then during the time that I have no access to my mum's online accounts that she takes the large sums from mum. It was the fact that I lost online access again that prompted me to call the police. I am furious with Lloyd's bank, as I have explained several times what the intentions of this woman are, yes they insist on letting her into the private meeting rooms with my mum to cancel my online access. My mum is under pressure from this woman and the bank seems to completely ignore this fact.

Saratoga241

I declined a card for my mum's account at the time of setting up the third party access, as I didn't see the need for it. Now I wish I had accepted a card for the account.

Mojisola

Saratoga241 wrote: »

Ih8stress with the third party access, I set up the ability to go into the bank and talk about my mum's financial affairs and they also agreed to online access. The neighbour has managed to go into the bank twice now with my mum and remove my online access. It is then during the time that I have no access to my mum's online accounts that she takes the large sums from mum. It was the fact that I lost online access again that prompted me to call the police. I am furious with Lloyd's bank, as I have explained several times what the intentions of this woman are, yes they insist on letting her into the private meeting rooms with my mum to cancel my online access. My mum is under pressure from this woman and the bank seems to completely ignore this fact.

The bank is at fault here. Complain, complain, complain until someone changes what's happening.

You have a clear pattern in the accounts, showing what's going on.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

What a hideous situation. I suggest you contact Age UK for specific advice going forward.


Sorry to have to be blunt, but if your mum is getting into a muddle with money so easily, her days living independently are numbered. It doesn't have to be a criminally minded neighbour, there are numerous ways in which she is vulnerable now. You need to explore the various options.