Fraudulent Power of Attorney

suerowe53

Unbeknown to any of our family a close relative applied for a Finance & Property POA on my 87 year old mother by filling in Continuation Sheet 3 which states that the donor (my mother) could not sign her signature or even make a mark. The Office of Public Guardian accepted this application as no medical evidence of physical disability is asked for, all that is needed is for the applicant sign plus two witnesses sign - her live-in boyfriend and her best friend were witnesses on the form. Once the POA was registered with mom's bank the attorney transferred £12,000 from mom's bank to her own. No-one (other than the attorney) including my mother knew of the POA until we saw bank statements showing the transfer. We told the bank (Lloyds) that the POA's were fraudulent and the money transfer was unauthorised but they would not even speak to mom because the attorney had told them mom had dementia - again Lloyds bank asked for no medical proof of dementia in fact mom had recently passed a Mental Capacity Assessment. The OPG say they take the forms on face value so registered them so there was no fault on their part. Lloyds insists that the attorney can do whatever they like with the donor's money once a POA is registered with the bank - the are obviously not following the OPG guide on POA use and misuse. The police do not want to know and they say we must bring a Civil Fraud case to court ourselves. This has taken up ten months of my life trying to battle these three organisations but to no avail. We have now revoked the POA but it seems there is no redress and we cannot get the money back. My question is: why are not any of these organisations doing a proper job?

74jax

suerowe53 said:

Unbeknown to any of our family a close relative applied for a Finance & Property POA on my 87 year old mother by filling in Continuation Sheet 3 which states that the donor (my mother) could not sign her signature or even make a mark. The Office of Public Guardian accepted this application as no medical evidence of physical disability is asked for, all that is needed is for the applicant sign plus two witnesses sign - her live-in boyfriend and her best friend were witnesses on the form. Once the POA was registered with mom's bank the attorney transferred £12,000 from mom's bank to her own. No-one (other than the attorney) including my mother knew of the POA until we saw bank statements showing the transfer. We told the bank (Lloyds) that the POA's were fraudulent and the money transfer was unauthorised but they would not even speak to mom because the attorney had told them mom had dementia - again Lloyds bank asked for no medical proof of dementia in fact mom had recently passed a Mental Capacity Assessment. The OPG say they take the forms on face value so registered them so there was no fault on their part. Lloyds insists that the attorney can do whatever they like with the donor's money once a POA is registered with the bank - the are obviously not following the OPG guide on POA use and misuse. The police do not want to know and they say we must bring a Civil Fraud case to court ourselves. This has taken up ten months of my life trying to battle these three organisations but to no avail. We have now revoked the POA but it seems there is no redress and we cannot get the money back. My question is: why are not any of these organisations doing a proper job?

How far along are you in the civil fraud case? 

Keep_pedalling

Who was the certificate provider?

 

HampshireH

This is quite scary if a fully factual account.

I cannot see how this is a civil matter when it equates to theft. Or obtaining funds by deception 

If that were solely a civil issue no one would ever be prosecuted for fraud, theft etc

Just out of interest what has the close family relative said about their actions?

xylophone

Who was the certificate provider?

Indeed.

https://beyond.life/help-centre/admin-legal/who-can-be-an-lpa-certificate-provider/#:~:text=What is a certificate provider,forcing you to make one.



https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/services/department/dispute-resolution/civil-fraud-and-investigations/fraud-civil-vs-criminal-faqs

Jude57

What an awful situation to find yourselves in. If you haven't already lodged a formal written complaint with Lloyds, do so now, paper and ink rather than phone or email and head it 'Formal Complaint'.  At the same time, find the name of your local Police Superintendent (should be on their website) and again, complain in writing. This should at least produce a written explanation for the lack of action, which may help you decide on next steps. This is a complex area of law so I wonder whether more junior staff/officers just didn't understand it.

If you've exhausted Lloyds' complaints procedure (it's on their website) then your next port of call is I think, the Financial Ombudsman Service. They can only investigate once you've gone through the bank's own complaints procedure but if they find in your favour they can reverse the fraudulent transaction and award compensation if appropriate.

I'd also be involving my MP as e letter on House of Commons stationery usually prompts a serious response.

Good luck, I hope you Mum gets her money back.

naedanger

Jude57 said:

What an awful situation to find yourselves in. If you haven't already lodged a formal written complaint with Lloyds, do so now, paper and ink rather than phone or email and head it 'Formal Complaint'.  At the same time, find the name of your local Police Superintendent (should be on their website) and again, complain in writing. This should at least produce a written explanation for the lack of action, which may help you decide on next steps. This is a complex area of law so I wonder whether more junior staff/officers just didn't understand it.

If you've exhausted Lloyds' complaints procedure (it's on their website) then your next port of call is I think, the Financial Ombudsman Service. They can only investigate once you've gone through the bank's own complaints procedure but if they find in your favour they can reverse the fraudulent transaction and award compensation if appropriate.

I don't think the bank have done anything wrong. They were acting on an official document that basically tells them they must deal with the donor's attorney. I was recently an attorney for my parents and if the banks had demanded further evidence of my authority to act things would have become unworkable. And I would certainly have complained, to FOS ultimately, had the bank asked me to prove I had authority to act for the donor if I had already provided the POA itself. Nevertheless I agree that if the op is unhappy then a formal complaint is the way to go. (Just in this case I think the bank are correct.)

We don't actually know whether the police have investigated. Indeed they might be pursuing a case of criminal fraud (if the position is clear cut). But even then, if the op's mother wants her money back she may need to take civil action. 

I really think we need more information to advise. The position will be quite different depending on whether or not the original attorney has a plausible reason for their action.

Jude57

I don't disagree @naedanger, and I've made some assumptions in my reply above, i.e that only junior staff/officers have been involved up to now. My thinking is that if the OP hasn't, until now, had written explanations for the apparent lack of action, it would be useful to have as a point of reference and to support any civil action they may choose to take. However, I suspect a civil case would be throwing good money after bad, unless the alleged fraudulent family member has assets to go after. 

naedanger

Jude57 said:

I don't disagree @naedanger, and I've made some assumptions in my reply above, i.e that only junior staff/officers have been involved up to now. My thinking is that if the OP hasn't, until now, had written explanations for the apparent lack of action, it would be useful to have as a point of reference and to support any civil action they may choose to take. However, I suspect a civil case would be throwing good money after bad, unless the alleged fraudulent family member has assets to go after. 

Agreed. And if the original attorney does not have a plausible reason and the police aren't pursuing a criminal investigation then I would certainly be pushing/presssuring them to do so. 

Marcon

I don't often think going to a journalist is the best (or even a good) option, but this sounds right up the street of Paul Lewis and MoneyBox on Radio 4, or Tony Hetherington of the Mail on Sunday. 

Sea_Shell

What safeguards are in place, that have real teeth, to stop this "sheet 3" being abused, if all the other signatories are "in on it".