Move to stop elder abuse by their kids

GREEDY children are cashing in on dementia by tricking elderly parents into handing over the family home before abandoning them in aged care.

More than 1500 elderly Queenslanders have lodged complaints with the State Government-funded Elder Abuse Helpline in the past year.

Lawyers are demanding tougher state legislation to make “exploitation” of the elderly a crime. The Queensland Law Society warned yesterday of a surge in cases of elder abuse by money-hungry relatives ripping off frail family members.

“A lot of children steal their parents’ money and it’s really disturbing,’’ Brisbane lawyer Brian Herd, the deputy chairman of the society’s elder law committee, said yesterday.

“I call it the mafiosa syndrome because it all happens within the family.’’

Mr Herd, a partner of CRH Law, called on the State Government to toughen the law to make exploitation of elderly people a crime, as it was too difficult to prosecute people for fraud when they had been “gifted’’ money or property.

Mr Herd said a cancerstricken 76-year-old woman sued her daughter after being “thrown out into the street’’.

Bennett & Philp lawyer Charlie Young said that older Australians with dementia “are very much susceptible to greedy relatives taking advantage of them’’.

“It’s just greed,’’ he said. “People know they can take advantage of mum and dad.’’