1 in 8 elderly conned after letting family control cash

Senior judge Denzil Lush has suggested that 300,000 elderly or seriously ill individuals may have lost money, property and even their lives because of misuse of powers of attorney.

The legal device is a cheap and simple method by which individuals can appoint another adult to look after their affairs in the event that they lose the ability to make decisions for themselves.

They can be written and put into operation for less than £250.

But senior judge Lush, who retired last year as chief of the Court of Protection, said he would never take one out for himself.

‘There tends to be a lack of transparency and accountability in attorneyship which can have a devastating effect on family relationships, particularly on siblings and other family members,’ he said.

In nine out of ten cases of fraud the perpetrators are family members, and in more than two thirds the guilty parties are sons or daughters of the person who took out the power of attorney, the judge added.

In an interview for BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme he said the majority of powers of attorney ‘work satisfactorily’.

But he warned: ‘I suppose the issue is what level is acceptable. We have no real research as to the extent to which abuse is going on. I nailed my colours to the mast in 1998 when I suggested probably in one in eight cases there is abuse. I don’t think anything over the last 20 years has made me change my opinion on that.’

The judge confirmed this means one in eight of nearly 2.5million powers of attorney that have been issued, or about 300,000 cases, result in abuse.

He does not believe there has been a cover-up of the scale of abuse but the judge has set out his misgivings in a new foreword to a legal textbook on their use to be published shortly.

His intervention is the latest blow to Labour’s controversial Mental Capacity Act, the 2005 legislation that was meant to reform and simplify the law governing the lives of those too ill to make decisions.

The scale of abuse is almost always hidden from the public because cases that come to light are routinely dealt with not in the criminal courts but in the Court of Protection.

The court is the branch of the High Court dealing with dis- putes over vulnerable and frail people and its business is almost always conducted in secret. The Ministry of Justice said that in the last three months 1,260 concerns were raised about power of attorney cases – which includes both ‘lasting’ and ‘enduring’ types of the legal device – and assessed by the safeguarding team.

Of these, 389 were referred to investigations after assessment, and 110 were sent for a court application to be made.

A spokesman said: ‘These figures in no way correspond to Mr Lush’s estimates.’

‘Hidden from the public’

ONE in eight pensioners who put their money in the hands of a trusted relative or friend become victims of fraud, a top judge says.