Brother sold mum's wedding ring

Good question @AutumnLover1989 - perhaps your uncle stole the jewellery @Rayqueen2026when he put your gran in care ☹️

Elder abuse.
Keep close to your mum and keep an eye on the will.
If she has a house, your brother will be eyeing that up already.

The most recent will is the only one that counts.

You both have POA so your brother should have involved you in the sale of your mothers goods.
if he has turned up with extra cash to buy goods for himself, sure as eggs is eggs he is claiming benefits for your mum without your knowledge and using his bank details to receive the money.
check with benefits what she is down as claiming, depending on her age, pension, pension credit, pip, dla or has someone down as being a carer.
you’d be surprised how many do this! This will come back to bite you once mums gone if she has not needed these benefits, even if she wasn’t aware.

Carers? Sounds like he ls stealing from her by stealth

My brother and I had some spectacular rows but he wasn’t a thieving cheapskate.

OP has the LPA been activated ? If so, you need to report any irregularities you find to the OPG, as your brothers’ actions will be in breach of it and may implicate you as the other attorney if you don’t. If it hasn’t been activated so far then maybe talk to your mum about doing so now, before she loses capacity. This will give her some protection going forward, but check the arrangements for decision making to ensure your brother can’t make decisions alone.

First thing to come to mind,are you sure your uncle didn't take them?

What a horrible thing to have happened. Im not sure you can do anything if your mum has capacity but i would consider speaking to social services as she could be a vulnerable adult at risk.

My grandma wished she had given her rings etc to my mum to look after, she was put into a home 3 years ago by my uncle unknowingly to the rest of the family, we all just got texts one days saying this is where your mum,gran is now for care...Anyhow within 2 weeks her rings, bracelets had gone missing and staff claimed they had no idea where and it wasn't just 2 it was 7 gold pieces she wore ever since I was a child given by my grandad and she only ever took them off to shower and magically they all disappeared at the same time. My gran insists she left them on a shelf while she went to shower the staff insisted she didn't and must have hidden them which was bizarre...anyhow my mum got poa and whatever else was needed and she now lives with my parents for almost 2 years now. The police were about as useful as a cake with no flour. Took reports, saw the pictures of all the jewellery being worn on various pictures, interviewed staff but nothing came of it. Insurance gave my gran some money back but the sentiment was more to her than anything being from my grandad. So sorry yes I can see the benefit of selling or giving to a family member to look after so carers don't steal them but don't understand why your brother took the money

When you sell gold/jewellery there should be a paper trail as the seller must pay into a bank account and keep records. This could be useful if you need to follow up with a safeguarding agency to get him removed as poa in future. He is definitely not acting in your mum's best interests.

This.

Ask him what he’s done with your mums money

Definitely financial abuse. Get some help now, and keep a log of it all. My uncle did this to my grandfather and when he died there was only a few thousand pounds left for his other children, he'd been manipulating him out of everything, all his savings gone. It also feels deliberately mean selling her jewelry if she has other money.... very controlling. Look at the Hourglass charity, call them and get advice but you may also need social services to help too.

Yes I got this wrong, I was thinking it always only came into play when mental capacity was diminished. Every day is a school day

Are you sure these are the correct facts?
My (covert narcissist) mother is also in her 80s and regularly tells stories like these but they are always not entirely the truth.
In my position I’d have taken her to the gold buyer as a favour and she would keep the funds and tells everyone she gave them to me to look like a martyr 🙄 (hence I am now no contact!)
Appreciate that not everyone has a shit mother like mine but maybe you should check with your brother this is definitely the case. No one ever checked with me and believed my mother’s lies.

This sounds like financial abuse. Why has he pocketed £1k from this? Surely of it’s your mums ring then she should get the cash to do what she wants?

It’s important for OP to understand this.

With PoA she is responsible for her mum’s finances and that includes notifying of irregular activity by the other PoA.

Turning a blind eye may get her into trouble either a. For doing nothing about it or worse b. Suspicion of collusion with her DB in the financial abuse.

Can she prove for example that some of the funds he received weren’t passed to her?

My first post on this thread flagged this as financial abuse.

Okay so your title is misleading. Your mum sold her wedding ring and gave the money to your brother. You don't suspect financial abuse, so basically this isn't about safeguarding and protecting your mum but about her preferential treatment of your brother and the fact that he gets more. I think your mum needs someone who is looking out for her interests.

Sadly I can see the same happening with my brother and mum 😔

He sold her wedding ring and kept the money? WTAF! That’s not normal behaviour. He sounds like he’s using her.

Whether jointly or severally abuse is abuse. But I get your point - if jointly then why wasn’t OP involved in the visit to the jewellers and aware of the money her mum was giving away.

It has everything to do with the LPA. The OPG recommend activating the LPA for use as soon as it’s registered, to avoid problems once the donor has lost capacity. It may well have been activated, and if so, then both OP and her brother are in breach of it. Him for his actions, and her for not reporting her suspicions to the OPG to protect her mum’s interests.

The Office of the Public Guardian recommend and advise that LPA’s be activated as soon as they are registered, as waiting until the donor has lost capacity can present its own problems. If the OP and her brother have followed this advice and activated it for immediate use then he’s abusing his position and OP is culpable too because she has her suspicions and isn’t acting on them. If I were OP I’d be checking ASAP to see if it’s activated and if so report the abuse to the OPG so they can investigate.