Enduring Power of attorney abuse - what can we do to stop it?

[cupsoftea]

An elderly person in a care home is having her money spent by the individual who holds the epa. We think the money is not being spent on the elderly person as the home & care is paid for and she has everything she needs plus only small expenses.

So far we've found out that no accounting records need to be kept by the person holding the epa, we've called the police who say it's a solicitor matter (what can a solicitor do in this case?), we've called social services but no reply yet.

What can we do? Where to turn? We want someone,who has the remit, to check what the money has been spent on.

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You could try contacting Help the Aged for advice - I believe they ran a big campaign on financial abuse earlier this year.

According to this you could make a referral to social services, which I guess you are already trying to do. Sorry the police haven't been any help Good luck.

Contact social services & ask for the "Vunerable adult team"

Call social services, they should have a POVA team (protection of vulnerable adults). They act in partnership with other agencies including the police.
Financial abuse is specifically included in their role.
They can apply to the Court of Protection to transfer the administration of that person's affairs.

Thank you all so much.

we've been told by the social services adult protection & police to go to a lawyer as there's nothing they can do to stop the money being spent.

Who will the lawyer contact?

The epa system imho just seems to be a blank cheque.

also the help the aged said the same thing (plus were very helpful & lovely)

I am a bit surprised that ss could't help more. I work in a Local Council and I know our ss is very hot on this - they have a team handling finances of people who have been financially exploited by relatives.

If you see a lawyer ask if Help the Aged can suggest someone and make sure you use a lawyer with some experience of this kind of thing.

Hopefully the lawyer will contact the court of protection see the links below for some more info

If they dont work just google it.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/HealthAndSupport/YourRightsInHealth/DG_10016888?ci ds=GooglePPC&cre=DPACFranchise

www.publicguardian.gov.uk/

Good luck.

thanks welshdeb - the common thread with all the people were've spoken to is that we'd have to prove this person with the epa had & was just spending the money not in the best interest.

but the problem is that the person with the epa doesn't have to keep accounts. It's like going round in circles.

Sorry, I haven't got anything constructive to add, so just bumping this for you.
Hope you get it sorted cupsoftea, it sounds like a horrible business.

The lawyer will investigate and then contact the police and the Court of protection. I am a lawyer who does this type of work.

You need to contact Solicitors for the Elederly. What part of the country are you in ?

Thanks KK for bumping it up.

MummyPoppins - thank you for your post - would you have the www details for the solicitirs for the elderly. In your experience what happens? -) can the epa be put on hold whilst someone just checks what the money has been spent on?

mp - have just found the www page - thank you so much for this

If you report matters to the C O P and they are happy that you have some evidence then they can write to the attorney and ask for accounts of what is happening to the money.There will be a court hearing and the EPA can be revoked. If theft/fraud is discovered then the police will be invovled.

mp - the cop said that the person holding the ep doesn't need to keep accounts and that we'd have to "prove" that there was finacial abuse going on and that the money had not been spent in the best interest. We only have the word of the perosn holding the epa that they've spent all the money. We asked if the epa could be put on hold whilst the cop checked out what was happening & I wa told that the elderly perosn had choosen the perosn to have the epa so I had to respect this and couldn't just ask for an investigation.

called the police and they didn't want to do anything - just told us to get a lawyer.

yes but if the lawyer makes an application to the COP to have the attorney removed on the basis of financial irregularity then the Court have to investigate. That is why you need a lawyer who will act on behalf of the elderly person.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH XXX Mummypoppins. We have contacted a lawyer as suggested and we are now able to see a way forward. We'll keep you updated.

good good...I love a happy ending!

Hello I think you will find that the attorney does have to keep accounts its part of the mental health act requirment responsibilities and also you need to find out if the epa is registered or not the public guardian will only investigate registered attorneys its a free search [email protected]
You cannot start seeing solicitors it will cost a fortune this website I have seen is explaining how the law is too weak to protect the donor of the EPA make no mistake the attorney is not going to go down without a fight if he is not registered you can do nothing at all exept launch a full scale civil suite its a nightmare the law appears to protect the fraudulent attorney he cannot be stopped by the police as they view it as a civil offence and the bank won't talk to you. is the old lady ok mentally ? if so she can revoke the EPA but she has to ask the solicitor ( not the one that drew up the last one he is working for the turncoat attorney ) the miss use of EPA's is big business and the website I have seen is trying to stop it by exposing the weak laws and so on if the old lady has lost capacity you can do nothing! if the attorney is determined to hang on to her cheque book. a law suite wil cost up to 30K the OPG the police the COP and the social services will do nothing financial abuse is not viewed as a crime. www.elder-abuse.co.uk
the forum on this site may give you better advice as thats all they deal with is miss use of ePA's best Delphwood