Brother stealing from dead relative

[Namechangetimes100]

You might remember me from such threads as my brother faked being in the navy to con my dying dad out of £40k and have a slew of affairs and / or my brother is pretending to be in mi5.

all sound potentially fake but I assure you aren’t.

im not really posting for advice but just I need to get it out of my system because I can’t tell anyone in real life because it’s so fucking embarrassing.

He gets worse, prior to DF passing away about 6 months prior a close relative on dms side died and she was the next of kin, due to everything with DF the estate just kind of was left, until now. Dm enlisted b into trying to clear the house. Dm was largely unaware of what financial assets there were, bank accounts she knew about were frozen and funds used to pay funeral expenses, there was no will. Probate is still on going.

now to the pertinent part, dm found some investment and another bank account letters/ statements in the house, still coming through the letter box as no death certificate has been provided. She opened them, saw the cash inside the accounts (upwards of £20k) and put them in the box she was keeping for ‘important paperwork’, thought nothing of it, carried on cleaning, left the room and then came back to find b going through the boxes and pocketing the letters (which contain all relevant account info) he didn’t know she saw him. She asked what he was doing and he came up with some cover story about how she was mistaken. Days later, he’s asking for birthday and place of birth and if said relative had a passport (they didnt). M is concerned and right so given his past behaviour that he’s going to attempt to drain the accounts but yet she’s unwilling to do anything about it.

I’m not sure I can do anything as there is no branch near me, ive got 0 account info so I’d be calling with a random tip? Having worked in banking they might think me the fraudster? I don’t know.

i just can’t believe someone is such a low life.

he’s got a new girlfriend now and part of me thinks i should warn her, not that I’d be believed

best part is M wants me to invite him to my house with my kids for x mas!!! As if!

sorry I’m ranting but I just had to put this somewhere

It’s a regional provider and I don’t live in the area unfortunately. Dm and B do however, so I can’t go to the branch. They are currently closed also for telephone queries, only found this out last night, dm has been sitting on it for weeks. Reminded her what she needs to do today and she says it’s winding her up as it’s too stressful but equally the thought of losing that money is also stressful so can’t win

its another relative, most of DFs bank accounts were joint, except one and dm has control over all those assets, although there are some investments and shares shes just left floating in the ether, this is another relative though. Two deaths occurred within 6 months of each other, very sad, and this one sort of fell by the wayside due to pandemic and DF being very unwell

I have to say that if your mother knows what is going on but isn't prepared to do anything about it then unfortunately she is part of the problem. If he does find a way to scam this money for himself, then your mum would have been complicit in part through her own negligence. This sounds more like a co dependent - enabling relationship in which case you'll just be bashing your head against a brick wall with her anyway. I'd tell the bank or at least email your concerns and perhaps do likewise with the police so at least there's a record of what you fear could happen. Which would still be a lot more than your mother seems to want to do about it.

You don't need to go into a branch. Just ring the central number and explain you want the account frozen while it goes through probate. Say your mums struggling with grief and feels housebound. They deal with this stuff all the time. Ask their advice what paperwork you need to send and where.

You can call the bank and tell them you suspect a family member is delaying notifying them of the death in order to withdraw money. They won't tell you anything, but they will probably put a note against the account.

Yeah I think I’ll have to give them a call on Monday, i don’t know much of the account info aside from name and address and dob but they should be enough, I’ll say I don’t want to know account info just to make them aware of some things. That is if he hasn’t already done something.

thing is though, if he has and they alert the police, guess who’ll be in the shit,…. Me

so if you get the account frozen and money then all goes to your mum - then your brother will just get it out of her anyway? if she refuses to see him as bad in any way.

writing to the bank to say X of y address died on x date, their account needs to be frozen would take 5 mins to do.any bank put on alert like this would do something. or be liable if anyone fraudulenty took money out later.

She wouldn’t give him the cash, she might give a small amount maybe £1k but she wouldn’t just give him 20k plus. Additionally his latest story is that he’s a highly successful project manager and a large international firm with a masters in economics from lse and is earning £50k plus , so he wouldn’t flat out ask for it, it sort of ruins the illusion.

although this time I do think he works at the company he is claiming too, but just not at the seniority he’s claiming. Although I could be wrong his LinkedIn says prior to this he was a senior intelligence officer at the civil service

I don't envy you with this. It's a shame the family dynamics are so messy but I think at least by putting the relevant organisation on notice of what you fear may happen you've at least done something proactive to try and protect the money which you know was the right and moral thing to do. Even if the family do turn on you for it...

Yeah that’s my thought process too but I do think dm needs to learn her lesson.

ill give a call on Monday I think, then whatever happens next happens

You can call them now, on the fraud number, which should be available online. You have a perfectly valid reason.

Yes, call them now. Banks are 24/7 these days.

If your brother can get hold of a copy of the death certificate (very easy) he can give it to the bank and if the amount in the account is below the floor limit, they will pay out to him. All he will have to do is signs a declaration saying he is entitled and liable if that is untrue. If the actual entitled relative finds out later, they will have to try to reclaim from the brother.

This is what happened when my relative died and a thieving family member cleared out the house.

I remember a previous thread of yours, and you are right to be concerned about his behaviour, and I don't blame you for not trusting him.

Of course you can. I got my exh certificate for my own purpose.

God I'd just keep out of it. He's a crook and your mother enables him, almostvinviteschim to take advantageof her. Just leave the pair of them to it.

How on earth did he lie to your dad and con him out of that amount of money?

First, anyone can obtain a death certificate once the death is registered. You don’t have to be a relative or say why you want it. Cost is about £11 I think. So your brother could easily obtain one —- just needs name, DOB, date of death of possible.
I suggest you go to the bank, explain additional bank account was discovered, you think paperwork may have been removed and you do not want to think it could be used for fraud. Bank will easily be able to search for all accounts in X name at X address and freeze as this will also come under Probate.
Info to bank, then leave them to sort. And suggest maybe your dim hands the estate admin to a solicitor or bank to handle as she’s got a lot to deal with.

They aren’t open 24/7, their website says Saturday 9-1pm. They aren’t a big bank, they’re a local provider

I was in a similar situation and I went into the branch and told them the person had died. I knew the bank and it was the only one they had an account with.

They froze the account immediately and asked us family to send in the death cert etc.

So you could do that. Then only the executor would have access. Executors have to explain their actions. So in theory he can’t just steal everything as he could do jail time.

If you suspect he had other accounts you’re unaware of, Id be tempted to write to every bank and building society in the neighbourhood saying he’d died and just letting you know as we don’t know where he banked but all his assets need frozen.

You could also ask at the post office and pay for his mail to be redirected (show death cert or whatever is reqd) to the executor if it’s you at your address? Then he won’t see any of it?

Your mum is blindsided and it’s a shame but she needs to woman up.

Oh bugger, no way!

that explains why DM was able to easily access the funds in the known about bank account to pay for the funeral

And that explains why he was after birthday and death date and if they had a passport!

I can’t go to branch it’s a local provider and I’m waaay out of area, they aren’t even open phone wise on the weekend past 1pm, ive googled.

Just get a death certificate yourself and take it to the bank. They will do the rest. There’s no such thing as a legal ‘next of kin’. You’re affirming your Dbs behaviour if you do nothing.

So contact them online - a quick Google search will give you a chat line number.

When my Mum died the registrar gave a form with the death certificate that you filled in with the deceased details and sent it off and it was registered and put on a database, maybe get in touch with the registrars office and see if you can get a form.

I don't know the name of the form, but I know it worked as my Dad got letters from financial organisations about an account of my Mums.