Office of Public guardians investigation

[Spendysis]

Does anyone have any experience of office of public guardians investigations.

I have mentioned my situation on here plenty of times on various threads

I reported my dsis for financially abusing dm over a year ago and it has finally been assigned to an opg investigator who advised me I wouldn't get any updates or hear from them unless they need more information.

I have just had a call from an independent doctor who opg have instructed to visit dm to assess her capacity and if she is vulnerable being influenced etc.

Will opg inform me if any action has been taken like if they remove dsis as poa? If they do who does poa go to can dm choose or is it chosen for her. Will I be informed when they close the investigation?

Social services visited dm previously and reported it to the police who then closed the case unless opg come up with something will opg notify them directly if they do find something? I think ss have opened their case again but I've not heard anything other than a generic email

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of any of this so I know what to expect

@rhino666 I am sorry you are in a similar situation. I don't have dm bank statements and haven't seen them. Dm told me dsis had transferred the money I already suspected that was happening as dsis has always been a nightmare with money always borrowing money from dm and I knew she had downloaded the dm banking app

Dm still owns her house so dsis won't want her in a care home as she won't want to lose out on her inheritance. Dsis is reliant on that money to pay her own interest only mortgage off as she has no other way of paying it.

As I haven't seen dm recently I don't know if she was no longer able to cope living alone or if her moving in with dsis was just so dm house could be rented out of which I am sure will end up in dsis bank account

It's incredibly frustrating as to me it's obvious what is going on. It's there in black and white on the bank statements that money was being transferred regularly and then if they look at dsis account they will see it was used for her own personal spending. She won't have receipts to match up to prove the money was spent on dm. Plus my version of events that after we had a discussion about missing money and me refusing to do the equity release mortgage dsis blocking me

The fact that since then I was removed as poa the equity release mortgage was taken out and the will has been changed

I've also sent email proof from the first equity release company dsis tried to use saying she pretended to be dm at first then admitted it was her and that she needed the money to tide her over until she got her inheritance

I don't understand why dsis has been allowed to remain poa for dm i presume the opg investigation is still ongoing as they said they will be looking out to see if the rental income ends up in dsis account but as they don't provide updates which they told me i wouldn't I won't know when they have completed the investigation

I have no concerns of DMs care while living with dsis she used to be a nurse and old people care home manager but they will get on each other's nerves and this will support dsis side that she cared for dm in old age where as I did nothing. Obviously this is because i have been excluded as dm was at my house 4 times a week i did her shopping etc until we had the discussion about the missing money

I would totally agree; the paper trail of dm's bank statements would reveal all but you and I have specifically and deliberately been denied the privilege of that information for obvious reasons. As far as I know the only way for a third party to have sight of these bank statements is through the Public Guardian or the Police, both of whom are seemingly precluded options in this respect.

As I understand it the Public Guardian will only act on its investigation if the donor, dm, is alive and found to be mentally incapable. Hopefully she will still be alive at the reckoning but it would seem she will be deemed mentally capable and the Public Guardian will drop any reasonable remedying action because of that; I hope I am completely wrong. If I am right, they would presumably have lied about starting an investigation, as if dm is mentally capable, their rules quote the Mental Capacity Act 2005 regarding mental incapacity and the investigation is not justifiable. This obviously misses the main cause of our issues completely and therefore conveniently ignores at least 90% of LPOA abuse.

Our experiences are so similar and I was wondering if our sisters are the same types of personality too. My sister is very money orientated, everything else comes a distant second to that priority. Her husband was a genuinely good person and friend at one time but now a totally controlled, loyal and highly intelligent foot solder, making up for her own low intelligence and all at my significant expense. My sister's greed likely killed his mother, or so his father alleged and broke up his brother's marriage. When she spends money, it is most often in areas where the money is burnt and not invested/saved, expensive holidays for example. She has a domineering, controlling personality but not much in the way of genuine emotion or care for others; I would say a psychopathic personality. She never gives anything away, expects to get everything cheap when buying but conversely, top dollar when selling. In an effort to discredit and undermine me, she has lied and manipulated to make it appear that I am the problem; Sadly she has been successful in this strategy to the same measure as the erstwhile control over my mother. I suspect there is a broad degree of similarity but for your sake, I really hope not?

@rhino666 opg sent out an independent dr to access dm capacity and if she was vulnerable to being coerced I only know this because he contacted me as he was trying to ring her but got no reply and wanted to check he had the correct number I have no idea what his findings were

From what I was advised opg only deal with abuse of poa which has happened not financial abuse manipulation and coercion that is a matter for adult ss and the police yet adult ss wont deal with it now opg are and police who literally visited dm asked if she was ok and wanted to still see me which she said she did although after that she stopped letting me in the house closed their case unless opg came up with something. So everyone is passing the buck to someone else

I am having a wobble today been supporting young adult dd who has been off sick from work with anxiety is due yet again to go back tomorrow. We have done this a few times and she never made it in Someone has been moving into dm house over the weekend my childhood home it got cleared out by dsis and i haven't got back some of my stuff which i didn't expect to and it's hit me that as dm is now living with dsis I won't see her alive again i will be lucky if I am told when she passes. Dbil who is medically unfit to work not the brightest spark has been asked to provide bank statements and has £20k sat in his account is stressing and I am not sure if it is dsis who has reported this as she is a benefit assessor she used to help him complete his forms and the money he has is from when their dm passed away they all got £20k the rest went on care home fees dsis knew this as she claimed we had already had inherited the fact she took £10k in 6 months what dm told me from the statements had £14k for what she told dm was life saving surgery dm came to me in tears saying she couldn't really afford it but you do what you can for dc I got told it was bowel reconstruction her work were paying half and the remortgage paperwork I was printing off was for the rest that was all lies it was weight loss surgery the remortgage her 3rd mortgage on her house was yet again debt consolidation. We thought dbil had spent the money he had paid his mortgage off and had a new bathroom fitted

I am stressed I am tired of it all dh is away at the moment and we have just FaceTime I wish I had his anger his attitude dsis is a greedy cow I am so much better person etc he's lost both his parents but he is close to his brothers non of them would do this to him or his children he got to say goodbye to his parents be involved in their life

@Spendysis I hope things have improved for you and your dd is in a better place. I assume after 2 weeks dh is back and sharing some of the stress. Putting 2+2 together from your last post, were you suggesting that dsis had reported dbil because he is on benefit and has 20k savings which I assume she wanted to get her hands on. If so, you really could not make it up, could you?

I decided to try and involve the police a while back and in the absence of any other information, found a reference to a men's advice line, a long way into the search results. This is really set up for male victims of domestic abuse, I guess, so my email sent 4th April was really asking to be pointed in the right direction to approach the Police with my particular issue. They replied on 17th April and confirmed that coercive control is a criminal offence. They recommended calling '101' where I could get advice; they also suggested Citizens Advice for their recommendation for a solicitor.

I called '101' on Monday and spoke to a pleasant lady who during our conversation mentioned personal issue with the Public Guardian. I think at some point in most peoples lives, they will be directly or indirectly failed by the Public Guardian. She took down some information and organised a supposed video, teams I guess, appointment with a local Police station for 12.00 on Thursday. Lots of Police problems generally, in this area at the moment, so that was cancelled at the last moment but I had an hour long telephone conversation yesterday with a policeman. He asked a lot of questions and was obviously completing an enquiry form but was not interested in me sending the evidence I had, to him. In short a pleasant very young chap tasked with collecting information as was required.

He called me back a couple of hours later to suggest that I would be best advised talking to Citizens advice and getting a solicitor. He also mentioned the Courts and tribunals Service, HMCTS but I cannot see where they would be relevant here. I was told that if the Police did get involved they would go the same route anyway but it would just take a lot more time than if I handled it myself. I did suggest that only the Police could deal with this as a criminal offence, mandate the production of Bank Statements, etc but it was quite obvious that generally speaking, the Police do not get involved in these matters, whatever the evidence. In truth I suggest their efforts with Coercive Control as a crime are restricted to domestic situations, where I gather the police spend a disproportionate amount of their time and our resources; how times have changed.

I conclude that, as the Police will not get involved at all and the Public Guardian will not get involved effectively with our shared problem, the only option available is through a solicitor. That is the route I am taking and I have already had one false start in that respect; hoping for a better result with another solicitor; I will report back.

I have a friend who works in OPG investigations. PM me a list of questions and I will speak to them. They obviously won't talk about your particular case but I can get non case specific guidance if that would help?

@Notsandwiches thanks my mind has gone blank. But do they advise when the investigation has been completed. I thought my investigation had been closed as it's been ongoing for 6 months it took a year for it to be assigned to an investigator and I was advised I wouldn't get updates and it usually takes 12 weeks to complete. So presumed it was closed. I emailed ss about an update they usually reply that they can't deal with it now opg are but came back to me to say they are waiting on opg information/instructions so they finally seem to be working together

@Notsandwiches sorry just seen the pm bit I am sure I will think of loads more question so when I do I will pm you

Opg have emailed me today to advise the investigation has been completed but as I am not poa I was equal poa until I believe my dsis convinced dm to remove me they can't give me any details of their findings which in fairness they did advise me of this when the case finally got assigned to an investigator

Mixed feelings on the one hand I have some sort of closure i raised my concerns to them they have looked into it they are the experts but on the other hand not knowing the outcome is frustrating is dsis still poa? Is this the reason dm is now in a care home which i doubt was dsis choice given the cost and this whole situation being about money has dsis got away with it all?