Elderly Financial Abuse exposed by Luton Lie Detector Test

Most home carers are kind, sympathetic people dedicated to caring for anyone who needs help with their daily lives. However, on occasion the odd opportunist slips through the screening net and elderly financial abuse can occur. Our client’s mother was a victim who chose to order a Luton lie detector test to find out what had happened.

Sarah and Lily’s Case

Lily was suffering from mild dementia when her daughter, Sarah, organised some home help for her. Lily could take care of her own personal hygiene needs and her financial affairs adequately. But she tended to forget where she put things, such as her house and car keys, documents etc. She was also not up to cleaning the house and often forgot to eat.

The care that Sarah arranged was via an agency and it was unfortunate that they couldn’t send the same carer regularly.  This meant that a stream of strangers would turn up randomly and that didn’t suit Lily at all. In the end Sarah managed to agree with the agency that two regular carers would do the work.

One, Janice, was a lovely person who carried out the duties required of her perfectly.  The other, Maureen, was good but seemed to have a lot of personal problems which she shared with Lily on her visits. Maureen’s husband had left her for a younger woman recently and she was struggling to make ends meet. Then her car needed repairs and she couldn’t afford what the garage quoted.

Lily had been thinking about buying a new car, so she suggested that Maureen buy her old one at an agreed £75 per month.  Maureen was over the moon and couldn’t thank Lily enough.  Everything went well for the first two months.  Maureen made the payments but on the third month she disappeared and the car with her.

When Sarah phoned the agency, they told her Maureen had left but refused to divulge her home address due to data protection legislation. Sarah knew that Janice was friendly with Maureen so asked her if she knew where Maureen was. Janice’s negative response didn’t have the ring of truth about it.

Missing valuables

Not long after Maureen’s disappearance Lily noticed that some of her jewellery and coin collection had gone.  She’d been a numismatist since childhood and over the years had collected some extremely valuable old coins including several gold sovereigns.  The latter were now missing.

Sarah initially wondered whether her mother had mislaid the valuables but gave Lily the benefit of the doubt. She had always kept her coin collection in one place and her jewellery in another.  She was meticulous about putting her jewellery back in her jewellery box.

In her own mind Sarah believe that Maureen was responsible for the theft.

Luton lie detector test

In conversation with Janice, Sarah mentioned elderly financial abuse and how so many cases of it go unnoticed or unproven.  Then she asked if Janice knew anything about the missing valuables.  Horrified, Janice thought she was being accused of robbery, but Sarah reassured her that wasn’t the case. However, she’d like Janice to take a lie detector test in Luton, near to where she lived, just to eliminate her from any potential police inquiry.

Janice’s polygraph results showed no deception at all.  But in the pre-test interview she told our examiner that she thought Maureen was responsible. She had seen the woman looking through Lily’s jewellery box. She hadn’t said anything because she didn’t want to “grass anyone up”. And Maureen had told her that she’d found a diamond earring on the floor and was just putting it back in its box. Janice has also given Sarah, Maureen’s address.

Elderly financial abuse

This type of despicable abuse can come in many forms including:

  • Theft
  • Fraud
  • Financial exploitation
  • Restriction of access to the elderly person’s money, possessions, or employment
  • Pressure being brought to bear on an elderly person to change their will, make a new will, grant a power of attorney or in relation to property and inheritance

Elderly financial abuse can be committed by anyone. It may be a carer, scammer, ‘friend’, partner, spouse or other relative.

Our client chose a polygraph test to establish the truth of a matter and we await an update of the conclusion to this case.

London/Home Counties polygraph services

If you know a vulnerable person who is being exploited in any way, often polygraph services provide a quick route to the truth.  Used by several police forces in the UK as an investigative tool, the polygraph is growing in popularity in Britain.

Our highly trained, fully qualified and APA (American Polygraph Association) accredited polygraph examiners are discreet and sensitive to the issues elderly people face. You can rely on their confidentiality and unbiased service.

Test can be conducted in the comfort of your own home or in one of our controlled offices nationwide. For more information contact our Free Helpline on 07572 748364.

Alternatively, if you have already decided that a lie detector test is the route you wish to take, you can book a test online using our secure reservation system.