Protecting finances of father with dementia - power of attorney, scams and potential theft

Keep_pedalling

Get that POA registered with his banks. Where he is holding large sums of money, get the bulk of it moved to new account in his name but with you having sole control on them. As long as he has enough going into his main current account he does not need access to his savings for day to day living.

As for his properties sign up for alerts from the land registry for all of them.

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

If his property rental is being handled by an agent then register the LPA with them as well.

If he has not had a formal assessment of his mental capability try and get that done as it would be useful for challenging any new will he might make on the grounds of mental capacity.

tooldle

Could you try him with a pre-paid card of some sort. He could still spend and the amount would be limited. When my mum was still wanting to shop, we worked with a fixed amount of cash per week. 
Whilst the friend may not be acting in his best interests, it is worth considering that it may indeed be your dad who has applied for the credit card. How he used to think about credit is not necessarily the same as how he thinks with dementia. Diverting the post is a good option. He may not notice, my mum certainly didn’t. Sit him down and have a chat, thrash out a plan. He won’t remember but you’ll have involved him, listened to him and that’s important. 
Definitely get going with informing the banks of your PoA. The bank can also help in removing any unexpected dd and putting a block on any being added without your consent.

JohnRinson

Keep_pedalling said:

Get that POA registered with his banks. Where he is holding large soles of money, get the bulk of it moved to new account in his name but with you having sole control on them. As long as he has enough going into his main current account he does not need access to his savings for day to day living.

As for his properties sign up for alerts from the land registry for all of them.

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

If his property rental is being handled by an agent then register the LPA with them as well.

If he has not had a formal assessment of his mental capability try and get that done as it would be useful for challenging any new will he might make on the grounds of mental capacity.

Wow, that property alert service is incredibly useful - I had no idea that existed. Feel much more reassured about that side of things having set that up now, thanks. 

Brie

Well a burglar in the house is one thing.  Someone "borrowing" his debit card is something else.  Potentially the bank/card co could limit the amount spent.  Same as they do with children's accounts.  So he could have a card that allowed him to spend only £30 or something so he could go the pub and have a couple of pints or go to Tescos and pick up his paper and tea bags.  

Another alternative is to get him a prepaid card.  That way even with the new £100 limit if the card only has £150 on it then it limits the amount being stolen.  I know very little about the prepaids but again I think they are similar to those for kids and include a number of limits but that may depend on the card provider.  Like the new £100 limit some banks allow you to set something much lower.  

If you have authorisation from the banks etc to manage his accounts you can check online as to when and where he's spending and how much.  That at least would be reassuring.  And you can see if suddenly he's buying/ordering items from a "women's" store rather than a men's one.  

I think after invoking the POA you need to do 3 things:

- talk to this woman and tell her your concerns about how your dad might be taken advantage of.  This may either warn her off or she may be horrified to think that she didn't realise he was sincere and understood when he allowed her to use his card.
- think about whether you dad should be living on his own.  If he's as bad as you say what's to stop him wandering off or forgetting the way home one day?
- get him a dementia gps tracker.  there's a number of them available and one could be discretely concealed in his jacket if you didn't feel he would want to know you were this concerned.  Then at least should he go walkabout you'd be able to track him down.  Some of the more obvious ones are like a medi-alert bracelet that are linked to a call centre so that if he was found and confused would mean that you were contacted.  

https://www.alzproducts.co.uk/gps-locators-trackers?parentcat=64915

Ms_Chocaholic

You can put an alert via Land Registry for the properties

Ms_Chocaholic

Would you consider installing a CCTV camera - just putting this out there, don't know the legalties of doing this in someone else's home but maybe someone will be along who could.

kezzygirl

You have mentioned that your father has capacity regarding his finances-i would get this reassessed as when looking at capacity we look at someone's ability to weigh up, RETAIN, and communicate their decision regarding a specific situation such as their finances. From what you say,he is missing a key element of capacity in that he is unable to retain info pertaining to that decision. Thus,he lacks capacity. Even if he were to affirm your query,I bet with further questioning he would be unable to give specifics or elaborate on his decision making at the time. Please, activate poa but work with her your dad on this so that he has *some* financial freedom but not too much that he is making risky decisions that he should be safeguarded from. You can always have his capacity reassessed and social services should be able to help with this.

Skiddaw1

I agree about notifying the 'friend' about your (general) concerns and that you're intending to invoke the POA. After all, if she really is genuine, she should understand (and be pleased that you're taking steps to protect your father).

But yes, I think the time has come to invoke the POA and take control of his finances. As has been said, you could always get a pre-paid card arrangement set up for him so that he still has some autonomy/control.

Shelldean

Could you, once you have access, move all his money in to new accounts with the cards if needed being sent to you.

Then in his current account the one he uses for shopping, his trips out etc keep a limited amount in there and top up once a week.

He can then carry on as usual, and if she does take his card then she will only get a limited amount.
Doesn't stop her but limits the amount she can take.

Make sure any income goes to one of the new accounts