|
|
Stealing From Elderly Is Just Way Too Easy
By Paula Gibbs, Wiscasset Newspaper
July 8, 2004
It may be the crime of the 21st century: financial crimes against the elderly.
"For many elders living in Maine, the slogan is not true," Attorney General Steve Rowe said at a symposium last week.
"Maine is NOT the way life should be. We must change that."
Rowe was one of several speakers at the session, called "Elder Abuse: Everyone's Business," hosted by The Highlands in Topsham. The sold-out conference was arranged by Betsy Cantrell of the Merrymeeting Bay Triad and Elder Abuse Task Force of Midcoast Maine.
"We are growing older faster than most states," Rowe said. "Since 1980, our 65 and over population has grown 23 percent."
In the vast majority of cases, Rowe said the person who is stealing from an elderly person is either a family member or a caregiver.
Detective Sergeant Michael Murphy of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office knows this all too well.
Last year he completed an investigation, which took over a year to finish, in which he found that an elderly Boothbay woman was robbed of over $400,000 - by her own granddaughter.
"Twenty or 30 years ago, we didn't talk about domestic violence - it was a family matter."
In many ways, that's how abuse of the elderly within the family is viewed in society today, Murphy says.
"Most of these crimes go unreported. We need to raise awareness and educate the public like we did with domestic violence cases years ago."
In his talk last week, Rowe described elder abuse as "a hidden problem."
"The victim may be too afraid or ashamed to ask for help, or may not know who to turn to," Rowe said. "Just as with other forms of domestic violence, abusers use fear to control their victims."
Sometimes the family member who is stealing from their relative is also the caretaker, and he or she will threaten to put the victim in an institution if they say anything about what's happening.
Another tactic used is to tell the victim there is no one else to take care of them, so they should keep quiet.
Rowe says it's a crime that is on the rise in Maine. The state's Bureau of Elder and Adult Services has referred over $22 million in substantiated cases of elder financial exploitation to his office, with an average loss of $39,000.
Many times elderly people are so embarrassed about what has happened to them they won't call police, Murphy says.
"We're trying to make the elderly feel comfortable in coming forward." To that end, Murphy and others in the county belong to the Lincoln County Triad, made up of representatives from AARP, Senior Spectrum, the sheriff's office, state police, and police departments in Wiscasset, Waldoboro, Damariscotta, and Boothbay Harbor. The purpose is "to reduce the criminal victimization of mature adults in our communities."
Rowe praised the work the Triad chapters are doing throughout the state.
"Law enforcement, seniors, and a number of agencies are working together to help seniors protect themselves," Rowe said.
"Knowledge is power. And the more knowledge seniors have to protect themselves, the better."
One of the main problems, says Murphy, is the broad power that can be conveyed when someone gains the power of attorney for another. This is what happened in the Boothbay case.
"The problem with a power of attorney is it can be too broad," Murphy says. "There are no checks and balances on it. The person who has the power of attorney can open up accounts in the other person's name, run up bills, cash in C.D.'s, sell stock.
"They can spend at will - as if they were that person."
Detective Michael Webber works in the attorney general's office investigating crimes against the elderly.
Speaking at last week's seminar, Webber said, "The power of attorney could be called a license to steal. These are people who take advantage of the situation they're in for their own financial gain."
In the Boothbay case, as in most cases, Murphy says, the person who starts taking money begins gradually - just a little here and there.
"Most often it starts off small. Once they take that first bit of money, it builds and builds, because no one is checking on them. Then they get greedy," he says. At the end, the granddaughter was writing checks for $5,000 at a clip, he said.
Webber described a case in which a daughter, who had a power of attorney, sold her mother's house in Greenwich, Conn., used the money to buy a home for herself in Maine, and put her mother in a cheap hotel room. When the mother wandered away from the hotel, she was found unconscious and taken to a hospital.
Webber said a local Maine police department was instrumental in returning $200,000 to an elderly victim, when a non-relative, who had power of attorney, bought an annuity in his own name.
"You can limit the power of attorney," Webber said. Even if the power of attorney is broad, the person holding it "has a legal obligation to handle the money in a way that is the best for the client," he said.
In the end, the person in the Boothbay case did less than a month of jail time, which is often the case.
"She loved her granddaughter," Murphy said. "She didn't want her to go to jail."
|
|
