FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION: LESSONS LEARNED FROM A STUDY OF PEOPLE HOLDING LASTING POWERS OF ATTORNEY

• Published in: Innovation in aging Vol. 1; no. suppl_1; pp. 365 - 366
• Main Authors: Gilhooly, M.L., Dalley, G., Gilhooly, K.J., Harries, P., Sullivan, M., Levi, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: US Oxford University Press 01.07.2017
• Subjects: Abstracts
• ISSN: 2399-5300; 2399-5300
• DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igx004.1331

Financial exploitation of older and vulnerable people appears to be increasing in the UK. The aim of this study was to investigate the nature and extent of financial abuse of individuals lacking mental capacity. There were three components to the study, (1) a case study of a London borough, (2) an online survey and (3) an analysis of cases referred to the Court of Protection in which people holding lasting powers of attorney were thought to have been financially exploiting the donor. This paper is concerned with the third component of the study. The Court of Protection cases were obtained from public records. Sixty three cases were analysed in relation to (a) Applicant to the Court, (b) Respondent to the case, (c) Grounds for making the application, (c) Object of the application – e.g. appointment of deputy; revocation, (d) Evidence of possible financial abuse, (e) Evidence of intra-family dispute, (f) Outcome. Triggers for suspicion of financial abuse included care home fees arrears and failure to provide personal allowance, failure to submit account to the Office of the Public Guardian, and co-mingling of funds. This paper will, in addition, describe cases. For example, a son holding a lasting power of attorney not only gifted himself large sums of his mother’s money, but charged her estate £400 every time he visited. The senior judge hearing the case made his view clear by describing this behaviour as ‘repugnant’.