Stolen Inheritance

Bravepants

bigadaj said:

elsien said:

Not neccessarily. An LPA can be set up to act where the person still has capacity, with their consent.

It can be, but it's very suspicious and patently acting against the interests of the grandmother for the attorney to be spending money on themselves and their family. If the grandmother wanted to gift that money, or indeed buy gifts etc, then if they had capacity they should be doing it themselves. It's a catch 22 that whilst difficult to prove to criminal levels of proof would be the more likely outcome of a civil dispute.

Indeed! The big clue here that something is amiss is the OP's statement that: "Just before she died, Nan found out that my Aunty had cleared out her account." So, this spending came as a surprise to his Nan.

Voyager2002

Bravepants said:

Indeed! The big clue here that something is amiss is the OP's statement that: "Just before she died, Nan found out that my Aunty had cleared out her account." So, this spending came as a surprise to his Nan.

There was no independent witness to this conversation, and if the Aunty were to be questioned by police or in court she would doubltess say that something different had happened.

fred246

From what I have read of these before it seems if granny has died then nobody is interested. If the family want to squabble afterwards let them get on with it. When families squabble over money it's normally only the lawyers that win. If they are still alive everyone gets excited about protecting the vulnerable person. After their death the authorities aren't interested.

Bravepants

Ah well, sorry OP, you're scre*ed!

Malthusian

Voyager2002 said:

Bravepants said:

Indeed! The big clue here that something is amiss is the OP's statement that: "Just before she died, Nan found out that my Aunty had cleared out her account." So, this spending came as a surprise to his Nan.

There was no independent witness to this conversation, and if the Aunty were to be questioned by police or in court she would doubltess say that something different had happened.

Doubtless she would, but assuming the OP's info is correct, I cannot see how a court would decide on the balance of probabilities that Nan willingly gave all her money to Aunt.

And the civil burden of proof is what is important. I don't see that it matters whether the aunt gets a few months in an open women's prison.

"He said, she said" only works in a guilty party's favour in a criminal trial.

The important thing is not that it was a surprise to Nan but the simple fact that the Aunt cleared out her accounts and has no evidence whatsoever that this was on Nan's instruction. Attorneys cannot make gifts.

We are not dealing with a master criminal here, otherwise the Aunt would not have caved in and given bank statements to the OP's Dad, which was effectively a confession. It is highly unlikely she would be able to blag her way to victory in a civil trial.

Sea_Shell

The other problem of course is, if the money's been spent, actually getting any of it back from Aunty.

She might seem outwardly wealthy, but may be up to her eyeballs in debt and any property may be in, say, her own husband's name.

Even if found "guilty" she might try and enter into a payment order arrangement (if that's available for these circumstances) and be repaying it over years, if not decades.

Eco_Miser

Voyager2002 said:

Bravepants said:

Indeed! The big clue here that something is amiss is the OP's statement that: "Just before she died, Nan found out that my Aunty had cleared out her account." So, this spending came as a surprise to his Nan.

There was no independent witness to this conversation, and if the Aunty were to be questioned by police or in court she would doubltess say that something different had happened.

No doubt, but the subsequent alteration of her will and POA is clear evidence that Nan was displeased with Aunt.

coyrls

Talk about getting ahead of the facts, let me get this straight the civil case is over and the court was not persuaded by the Aunt's story, however the Aunt is in so much debt that she is unable to pay the award.  Has the Harley Davidson been repossessed yet?

Sea_Shell

Well hopefully the OP will come back and let us know how things are progressing.   

I think all we've tried to do ( i know i have) is just to put a few "what if" scenarios forward, just so the OP is aware of some of the issues that may arise.    Forewarned is forearmed and all that.

What's the point in just posting that "everything will be fine, and you'll get all the money back no problem!"

We (I) don't just post to help the OP, but for anyone else that may be reading the thread and be facing a similar problem.   No doubt there are many 1000's of people who are non subscribers, who read these forums, as they do frequently come up in Google searches.

bigadaj

What's the point in posting "the money's gone forget about it".