Fraudulent LPA and Banks Safeguarding responsibilities

sheramber

tooldle said:

Two threads, one for each parent. Unlucky.

I don't think this in the OP's mother.

He refer to a family member's mum and says he is not a sibling.

Spendless

What mate - the one that  witnessed it? When my Nan went into a care home with dementia, my Mum didn't have POA. She was able to get it but the person who said Nan had enough mental capacity to agree to this has to be someone 'official' I can't remember exactly what his official title was but I don't think  he was a solicitor. Pretty sure my Mum couldn't turn up 'with a mate' to witness.

Also if bank  hadn't been made aware of POA how was relative accessing money from the account anyway and if it's because they knew her log ins/pin numbers then why go to the extent of getting POA?  

elsien

Spendless said:

What mate - the one that  witnessed it? When my Nan went into a care home with dementia, my Mum didn't have POA. She was able to get it but the person who said Nan had enough mental capacity to agree to this has to be someone 'official' I can't remember exactly what his official title was but I don't think  he was a solicitor. Pretty sure my Mum couldn't turn up 'with a mate' to witness.

Also if bank  hadn't been made aware of POA how was relative accessing money from the account anyway and if it's because they knew her log ins/pin numbers then why go to the extent of getting POA?  

It doesn’t have to be someone official. It needs to be someone who knows the person well enough and can have a conversation with them to confirm that they understand the implications of the LPA, that they don’t need to make one if they don’t want to, and they can choose whoever they like to act for them.

But if someone already has a dementia diagnosis and it’s likely that the power-of-attorney will be open to challenge with the OPG, then it makes sense to get a solicitor or someone independent who really understands the Mental Capacity Act to head off any queries further down the line.

The need for a power-of-attorney (or depoutyship)  once someone loses capacity is because it’s financial abuse to access someone’s account with their pin number with nothing legal being in place. And in this case, probably because they couldn’t sell the house without it.

But the system is open to abuse – the OPG is under resourced, and there’s nowhere near enough checks carried out.