Why did police refuse to act against conman minister despite FOUR complaints?
POLICE refused to take action against a Church of Scotland minister even after they were repeatedly warned he was trying to defraud three elderly brothers.
Officers received four separate official complaints stating the Reverend Ivan Warwick – who once preached to the future King Charles – was trying to take the vulnerable pensioners’ Highland farmhouse.
Despite being alerted to the scam, no criminal probe was started.
Instead, the family had to take the case to the civil courts, which – as revealed in The Scottish Mail on Sunday last month – saw the minister and three others branded frauds and ordered to repay the £390,000 cost of the brothers’ home.
The family of Hugh, Roderick and David McCulloch have now lodged a police complaint, demanding to know why officers did not prosecute Warwick and his friend Douglas Stewart for their callous actions. Last night, Helen Fraser, 71, a cousin of the brothers, said: ‘The police were against us from the start and their conduct needs to be investigated.
‘I want Ivan Warwick and Douglas Stewart to go to prison for what they have done and I don’t understand why the police have not taken action against these crooks.’
In 2013, Warwick, 69, his wife Jocelyn, 60, and their friends Douglas and Mhairi Stewart, both 70, befriended the McCullochs who had lived together for decades at Logie farm near Muir of Ord, Rossshire.
Warwick and Stewart got power of attorney over the brothers but abused their position to cheat the siblings out of their home.
In August 2017, Mrs Fraser changed the farmhouse locks, after Roderick told her he was to be forcibly evicted. She claims Warwick then went to the window and yelled at the brothers to ‘open the f***ing door’. Later that month, Mrs Fraser went to the police with her sister, as well as with Roderick and Hugh to officially complain – but officers concluded that ‘there was no irregularity’.
The brothers were moved out soon afterwards and their home was sold by Warwick and Stewart. Last month the Warwicks and Stewarts were ordered to pay the brothers £390,000 after a civil case at Inverness Sheriff Court.
The sheriff criticised Warwick, stating his position at Strathpeffer Church added a ‘veneer of respectability to the scam’.
Warwick, who is suspended from Kirk duties, was also slammed for taking £40,000 from the brothers – money he claimed was a gift.
A second civil case has been launched alleging Warwick and Stewart drained £705,000 from the brothers’ bank accounts.
The minister and Stewart deny any wrongdoing.
Hugh and David McCulloch, who suffered from dementia at the time of the fraud, have since died.
The police refuse to say why a criminal probe was never opened.
They say they passed reports of a ‘possible fraud’ on to a body responsible for probing power of attorney issues. Police Scotland said: ‘Enquiries were carried out and the case was referred to the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland.’
‘The conduct of the police needs to be investigated’