Power of attorney unlawfully spending money?!

weston800

Hi all,

My Nan passed away at the weekend, sad but almost grateful - she suffered with dementia and had no real life.

The background: my Nan has 2 daughters (my Mum & my Aunt) and 6 grandchildren. My Aunt is the eldest daughter but has MS so is unable to care for herself, because of this; my Mum next of kin and is also executor of my Nan's will.

Sadly, in 2015 my Nan fell ill and ended up having to live in a care home needing 24hr care.

We all got on very well as a family but as soon as my Nan was diagnosed with dementia; my Mum received a letter from the court advising her that two of my Aunt's children were applying for Power of attorney and Court of Protection administrators. We made contact with the family to query it and received nothing but abuse so wrote back to court saying that we objected and that my Mum should really be POA as she is the daughter but unfortunately we couldn't fight it as we simply didn't have the money to pay the court fees/solicitors. Therefore; they won the case and became POA to my Nan - it since transpires that they used money from my Nan's bank account to pay to allow them to apply to be POA...

Now that she's passed, we've had to get heavily involved in the paperwork/planning due to my Mum being executor of the will - we're very happy about this as we've been pretty much kept in the dark for the last 5 years! After applying to close bank accounts etc, we were provided with bank statements and have found ourselves in complete disgust at the money the POA's have been spending! Again, we've queried this directly and they've given us reasons such as needing to buy her new clothes etc - I'm not disputing that she'd need new items but there are literally 8 transactions in 2 days to JD WILLIAMS along with cash withdrawals, contactless payments to the local Co-op/Sainsbury's etc etc. The POA advised me that they had to provide annual reports to The Court of Protection which detail any finances in and any out so I'm guessing they've allowed such costs? I don't know if they ask for receipts or proof of items ordered?

I'm wondering where to go from here? Not only for the fact that quite honestly it appears they've been willy-nilly spending my Nan's money but also for my poor Mum's sake.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks :-)

xylophone

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-6980989/How-report-abuse-complain-power-attorney.html

Nan was diagnosed with dementia; my Mum received a letter from the court advising her that two of my Aunt's children were applying for Power of attorney and Court of Protection administrators.

They were appointed as deputies as there was no PoA in place and your grandmother lacked capacity to grant it?

https://www.gov.uk/become-deputy/responsibilities

The deputies would have had to file an annual report.

Your mother would have to make a formal complaint in her capacity as executor on the basis that she believes that there was was misuse/abuse of the assets of the deceased.

Can she provide evidence that this was indeed the case?

Your grandmother would have required clothing/toiletries while she was in the home and may have had to pay extra for such services as the hairdresser/pedicurist etc.

weston800

xylophone wrote: »

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-6980989/How-report-abuse-complain-power-attorney.html



They were appointed as deputies as there was no PoA in place and your grandmother lacked capacity to grant it?

https://www.gov.uk/become-deputy/responsibilities

The deputies would have had to file an annual report.

Your mother would have to make a formal complaint in her capacity as executor on the basis that she believes that there was was misuse/abuse of the assets of the deceased.

Can she provide evidence that this was indeed the case?

Your grandmother would have required clothing/toiletries while she was in the home and may have had to pay extra for such services as the hairdresser/pedicurist etc.

Sorry, yes that sounds correct.

Any idea if they'd have to submit receipts with the annual report?

We have asked for the last 5 years of bank statements which the bank are posting to us in a few days but I have a statement in front of me from Nov to Jan and I just can't see how the transactions can be legitimately for my Nan. I completely agree she'd need new clothes during her 5 years at the care home but during Nov there are 19 transactions to JD Williams, Co-op, Dorothy Perkins, Very, various cash withdrawals and then another 11 transactions in Dec. I just can't see how an elderly, bedridden, non-vocal lady would require such items?!

Keep_pedalling

weston800 wrote: »

Sorry, yes that sounds correct.

Any idea if they'd have to submit receipts with the annual report?

We have asked for the last 5 years of bank statements which the bank are posting to us in a few days but I have a statement in front of me from Nov to Jan and I just can't see how the transactions can be legitimately for my Nan. I completely agree she'd need new clothes during her 5 years at the care home but during Nov there are 19 transactions to JD Williams, Co-op, Dorothy Perkins, Very, various cash withdrawals and then another 11 transactions in Dec. I just can't see how an elderly, bedridden, non-vocal lady would require such items?!

That does indeed sound like at least one of the deputies was abusing their authority. Although they have had to submit accounts, those are not going to be scrutinised that closely unless someone makes an official complaint.

Using you Nan’s money to pay the court costs is OK I would not expect a deputy to have to pay those costs themselves.

Your mums has 3 choices, to let it go, make an official complaint via the OPG, or if the deputies are beneficiaries of her will, she can treat the excess spending as a loan and deduct it from their share of the estate.

As she has control of her mum’s chattels your mother can easily prove that the clothes purchased which your Nan’s money ever ended up in her possession.

Dox

Take your nan out of the equation, if you can. Whatever spending happened in the final years of her life didn't harm or upset her then, and it can't hurt her now she is dead.

Focus on your mum and how she feels. Depending on the amounts involved, for her peace of mind it may be better to write off the spending concerned and accept that there are nasty, dishonest people in this world.

She could make an official complaint, but bear in mind that it will take time and emotional effort, never mind cost.

What she can't do without proof is deduct the spending from any money due under the will to the deputies.

badmemory

Whilst I understand how you feel about the spending please be careful about complaining about clothes spending. A care home will be washing everything on a hot wash. It may sound OTT & is not what you would do at home but they have a lot of vulnerable people there who need protection from as many germs as possible. Any infection can spread like wildfire if they are not careful. My mother's clothes suffered until we replaced the ruined ones with ones able to stand a higher temp. We had been warned!

getmore4less

There was a case here a while back where an executor uncovered financial abuse of an LPA, the OPG said they could not investigate, as their powers cease at death(they will continue an investigation if started), the executor would have to pursue the case themselves

Now that was a LPA and they only have powers to investigate if there is a complaint.

As this was appointed deputies and the alleged abuse happened on their watch they should take this more seriously as they have a statutory duty.

Not sure but I would have though a 24hr care home would have a personal belongings log of items brought in for those under their care.

Keep_pedalling

getmore4less wrote: »

There was a case here a while back where an executor uncovered financial abuse of an LPA, the OPG said they could not investigate, as their powers cease at death(they will continue an investigation if started), the executor would have to pursue the case themselves

Now that was a LPA and they only have powers to investigate if there is a complaint.

As this was appointed deputies and the alleged abuse happened on their watch they should take this more seriously as they have a statutory duty.

Not sure but I would have though a 24hr care home would have a personal belongings log of items brought in for those under their care.

When my mum was in a care home, there was no log of things like clothes. There was a system where everything was taxed with the residence name and that was about it. I would say that if there were no clothes found amount her possession that came from those shops it is pretty solid proof that that spend was fraudulent.

There is also vary little need to hold substantial amounts of cash in homes, my mum never had any, I used to pay people like the hairdresser by bank transfer.

An executor has a responsibility to all beneficiaries so if money has gone missing then they have a duty to try to retrieve it. Deputies have been prosecuted in the past where financial irregularities have been discovered after the person under court protection has died.

If I was the executor in this case I would give the deputies a chance to come clean with the threat to complain to the OPG if they failed to do so.

getmore4less

The key is the OPG have the statutory duty to keep an eye on deputies they appoint so they should do an investigation at no cost to the estate once presented with evidence

For LPA there is no statutory duty unless there is a complaint while the donor is alive.

BDL99

The people appointed as a Deputy should have paid for a security bond before the order was issued by the Court. All deputies have to provide annual accounts to the Court.



It's not unknown for the OPG to forget to enforce the continuation of bonds though (personal experience). Go straight to the Investigations team (Google OPG investigations for more info) and ask them to look into the handling of the finances, if they find irregularities they can call in the bond.

Shelldean

Husband was a deputy for his Nan . As she also lacked capacity to deal with stuff herself.

He never once filed a report!!
And he was her deputy for about 4/5 yeara!!!