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David remembers the moment he found his elderly stepfather, John, unkempt and suffering from dementia, living alone in an unclean hotel room. “I didn’t think you’d leave an animal in the state that room was in,” he says. “There was no care at all. You would not leave a vulnerable old man like that.”
Months earlier, John had vanished. His eldest granddaughter, Amy, had taken control of his welfare and his finances, and stopped any contact between John and the rest of his family, including Barbara, his wife of many years.
With Amy’s help, John had changed his will, making her the sole beneficiary, and had then been left to live by himself in a single room, confused and isolated.
John’s family was one of hundreds who contacted the BBC after hearing The Willpower Detectives last year. The series revealed how a partner at an Essex-based law firm was using what’s known as Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) to take over the finances of vulnerable clients.
In June, Parliament will debate a private member’s bill to provide extra safeguards to LPA. The bill – introduced by the MP Fabian Hamilton – has cross-party support, and is shaped in part by the BBC’s investigations and the huge public response to the cases raised.
The story of John Wilcox demonstrates how, in handing over responsibility for their financial assets, vulnerable people can sometimes be put at risk by members of their own family.
After many years of running a successful office-furnishing business in Leeds, John and Barbara Wilcox had retired and were living comfortably in mid-Wales. Both had been married before. John had no children of his own, but he loved Barbara’s son and daughter.
It was a “very, very emotional” reunion, she remembers. Before long, they were holding hands and John had agreed to come home with her.
The next day, Barbara and her brother Mike came back to the hotel to pick John up. Mike says it felt like they were “planning a heist”. He recalls that “as we drove away and started to get out of Torquay, I said: ‘Oh gosh, we got away with that.'”
Back in Wales, Barbara was able to see John’s bank accounts, and discovered that Amy had taken more than £5,000 – there was just 16p left in his account.
But John’s story had a happy ending of sorts. He managed to get the power of attorney and the new will cast aside, and lived for nine months with Barbara in Wales, before dying peacefully at home.
His tale highlights the difficulties involved when it comes to deciding who has control of what’s often seen as “family money”, and who will inherit it.
The elderly and vulnerable can quickly find themselves in situations where they are extremely vulnerable, he says, and more needs to be done to protect them.
Labour MP Fabian Hamilton says the OPG can be “toothless” for vulnerable elderly people and their families.
Mr Hamilton says changes are needed to provide greater safeguards, and his private member’s bill on attorney powers is due for its second reading in June.
The bill – which has cross-party support – would compel banks and regulators to check for issues such as cognitive decline, and greater scrutiny over whether an attorney is abusing their LPA powers.
Barbara thinks that the proposed legislation could have helped in her situation. “In cases like John’s, where you have this kind of paranoia, solicitors involved with a power of attorney should be making enquiries of the family and verifying,” she says.
Meanwhile, John’s family have had no contact with Amy, unable to forgive the hurt she caused them and what she put her grandfather through. They say they still do not understand why Amy acted in the way she did.
In May 2024, Amy accepted a police caution for fraud – which in law is an admission of guilt – specifically because she had taken money from John’s account after he had returned to Wales, and was no longer in her care.
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