What’s most sickening about the fraud carried out by Madeline Shaw isn’t the enormous amount she stole – £71,600 – or even that her victim was elderly and frail. It’s the fact that the victim was Shaw’s own grandfather, John Mallaby.
Shaw had power of attorney over John’s affairs, giving her control of his finances.
She exploited that trust by plundering his savings while stopping paying the fees for John’s nursing home and not even buying the basic toiletries that were requested by the home’s staff.
The fraud was only discovered after John died, aged 83.
Last week 32-year-old Shaw from Borrowby in North Yorkshire was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to fraud at York Crown Court.
‘Madeline Shaw betrayed the trust placed in her to act in her frail grandfather’s interests,’ said Emma Harris of the Economic Crime Unit at North Yorkshire Police.
Tragically, the case is far from unique.
The charity Hourglass, which campaigns against the issue, warns that elder abuse is an epidemic, and the number of cases continues to soar.
Madeline Shaw from Borrowby in North Yorkshire was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to fraud at York Crown Court
Brett Conway stole £52,000 from his infirm parents and spent much of it on foreign holidays and paying-off his credit card debts
Seven years ago, it received around 4,000 contacts from concerned members of the public each year, now that figure is 70,000.
Financial abuse of elderly people typically involves stealing their money or possessions, or defrauding them by threatening or pressuring them to hand over money, or sign financial documents. At times it is easy to spot, for example a family member or carer taking money from an elderly person’s wallet without their permission or pressuring them into handing over cash.
In others it may be more concealed, for example a loved one threatening that they won’t visit or bring around the grandchildren if the elderly person does not take them all out, or taking small amounts of money from their account each month.
In most cases, the perpetrator of fraud against an older person is a relative, Hourglass finds.
‘A number of studies suggest that family members may have a sense of entitlement to the financial assets of an older person feeling that they will inherit it anyway, that the older person may no longer need it, or that the perpetrator deserves it for assisting with care needs,’ it warns.
In some cases, the situation is exacerbated by rising living costs, leading perpetrators to take advantage of older family members to fund their own lifestyles.
Millions of older people rely on their relatives to help manage their finances and as many as four million have Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) set up for this purpose. These are legal documents that allow you to nominate a trusted person to act on your behalf if you’re unable to do so.
Registering an LPA can be invaluable and in the vast majority of cases is used responsibly in the best interests of the person who has bestowed it. However, in some rare cases this trust is abused and the LPA used to access an elderly person’s money against their interests.
Graham Walker, 74, and his wife Lyn, 71, were found guilty of fraud after staff at the care home they own concocted a fake will to try to pocket the £175,000 savings of an 85-year-old resident
Pamela Gwinnett convinced Joan Green to grant her lasting power of attorney, and changed the locks at her bungalow and told carers to refuse to let her friends and family visit
Joan died in November 2022, aged 89, isolated and living in fear of 62-year-old Gwinnett, who by that point had stolen £300,000
A poll conducted by Hourglass revealed some shocking attitudes, with 26 per cent of respondents thinking that it was acceptable to pressurise an older person into changing their will, and 21 per cent saying that it was not abuse to coerce someone into signing over the deeds to their house.
‘It’s an epidemic and it’s getting worse,’ says Hourglass chief executive Richard Robinson.
‘Nobody seems to be saying: “This is awful, what can we do about it?”
‘Parliament has discussed the abuse of farmyard animals more often than older people.
‘There’s no minister for older people, there’s no independent commissioner for older people and there’s not a mention of older people on the website or annual reports of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, unless it’s something we’ve said.’
If you’re worried that an older person is being exploited you can contact Hourglass at www.wearehourglass.org
Professor Keith Brown, who was awarded an MBE in this New Year’s Honours for services to adult safeguarding and fraud prevention, says that older people often do not realise that they are being defrauded and even if they do, they might fear reporting their suspicions in case it impacts on their care.
‘When you are that vulnerable and lonely it’s astonishing what you’ll put up with,’ he says.
He compares elder abuse today with child abuse in the 1970s, when it was hardly recognised as an issue apart from the risk of so-called ‘stranger danger’.
‘We didn’t start to use the term “child abuse” until 1980 onwards and we assumed it was done by a stranger.
‘As the decade went on we started to recognise that a lot of abuse was carried out by a relative or somebody known to that child.
‘I suspect we are in the same place today with fraud against the elderly.’
One recent dreadful example of a perpetrator is Brett Conway, who stole £52,000 from his infirm parents, spending much of it on foreign holidays and paying-off his credit card debts.
Following his arrest on suspicion of theft, Conway waged what the police called ‘an obsessive’ campaign against his parents in an attempt to get the case dropped.
In August the 66-year-old from Stanton St Quintin near Chippenham in Wiltshire was jailed for six years and eight months following a trial at Swindon Crown Court, his parents having died before seeing justice done.
After the trial, DC Rachael Fairbairn of Wiltshire Police said: ‘The financial loss in this case, as with many fraud investigations, came second to the emotional trauma he inflicted.’
Professional carers can also be perpetrators, according to Hourglass. It found they are in just 4 per cent of cases, though it cites other studies that put this figure as high as 31 per cent, highlighting just how difficult it is to know the scale of the problem.
The Crown Prosecution Service does not record the relationship of fraudsters to their victims and the annual Crime Survey for England and Wales does not question care home residents.
Whatever the exact figure, some carers are the worst offenders of all, as illustrated by the recent high-profile scandal at Amberley Care Home in Dudley, West Midlands.
Senior staff concocted a fake will to try to pocket the £175,000 savings of 85-year-old resident Rita Barnsley.
The owners of the home, Graham Walker, 74, and his wife Lyn, 71, and the manager Jamiel Slaney-Summers, 65, were found guilty of fraud by a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court and are due to be sentenced next month.
The prosecution was brought by Dudley Council’s trading standards team, which was alerted by Rita’s cousin Verna, who became suspicious when the home would not connect her phone calls to Rita.
‘It was an horrific abuse of trust by three people who she was relying on to look after her best interests,’ said Councillor Phil Atkins.
Some cases involve relatives or supposed friends who become carers in an unofficial capacity.
Pamela Gwinnett acted the part of a kindly friend, doing the shopping and occasional cleaning for widowed Joan Green, a retired accountant.
The heartless crook convinced Joan to grant her lasting power of attorney, and changed the locks and landline at her detached bungalow in Chorley, Lancashire, and told carers to refuse to let her friends and family visit.
Joan died in November 2022, aged 89, isolated and living in fear of 62-year-old Gwinnett, who by that point had stolen £300,000.
She used much of the money to pay-off mortgages on properties she owned, then flew to Tenerife and has not returned.
Last month she was sentenced in absentia to six years in jail.
Judge Michael Maher, sitting at Preston Crown Court, said that Gwinnett milked poor Joan ‘until she was dry’ and added: ‘It is an affront to justice and the rule of law for this defendant to be allowed to remain in Tenerife.’
Chelsea Iles stole almost as much – £290,000 – from her victim while also playing the role of the ‘kindly friend’.
Her mother had helped the neighbour in Gloucester with chores such as shopping, using his bank card.
When she died, Chelsea assumed the role, exploiting it to steal his savings to fund her gambling addiction.
Knowing that he had poor eyesight, Iles showed him falsified statements to dupe him into believing that his savings were intact.
Judge Alan Large, sitting at Gloucester Crown Court, branded 29-year-old Iles ‘cowardly’ and jailed her for four years and four months.
Professor Keith Brown adds that one particularly worrying type of case has come to his attention in his capacity as the chair of two council Adult Safeguarding Boards.
‘There’s a concern about local authority carers for vulnerable older people who have resigned from the authority to become private carers for those people and then become the sole beneficiary of their wills,’ he says.
‘There are a couple of these cases that we know about and it will be a bigger problem.
‘How much bigger is the unknown bit.’
Hourglass estimates that elder fraud costs the public purse £16billion a year, as once independent victims are left traumatised and needing care from health and social services, as well as the police.
Dame Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner, responded: ‘I am dedicated to understanding and championing the experiences of victims and survivors – no matter who they are.’
Warning signs that an older person is being defrauded:
- A cold house, lack of hot meals, old clothes, unpaid bills.
- Documents or cheques that appear to be signed by someone who can no longer write.
- Family and friends barred from visiting.
- Someone moving in and living rent-free.
- The unexplained disappearance of money or valuables.
