The Lemon Fool

8 years ago my Mother died and left some money for the grandkids. My brother was the trustee for his younger daughters money.
About 5 years ago he split with his wife and moved out. All the way upto his daughters 18th birthday he would see her often and tell her just how well his investment of the money was doing. All the way upto 2 days before her birthday.
On her birthday his phone was dead. He disappeared off social media and was no longer at the address of the house he was renting.
He was gone.
We have reported the matter to the police but in 9 weeks they have not found him despite us giving them a lot of details about him. Surely someone who owns a car, has a bank account, a doctor, a dentist can be found?

My Niece is completely destroyed by this and has sunk into depression when she has a promising future at university waiting.

I really don't know what I can do to help. I feel so useless and the Police seem to have given up. Even if found the money is gone and he has no assets but we hope that he will get punished. Or as my Niece says, he will get away with it yet again.

Simon

Is that Simon from TMF? If so, the family issue sounds sadly familiar and par for the course, but a further development . How sad for you all and your niece in particular. Although there may be no love lost between you and your brother you must have some concern for his wellbeing too.

You've always been there for your niece and will continue to be.

All the best
Clariman

Hello Clariman,

I haven't always been there for my youngest Niece. My brother used to keep her away from the rest of the family. Long and sad story.

Do I have any cares about my brothers wellbeing? In a word. No. I hope he gets caught and I hope he goes to jail. What sort of person tells his daughter to meet him in town the day after their birthday so he can transfer her inheritance to her and then goes completely off the grid because he spent it a long time ago? Stringing her along for years. Done to inflict the maximum pain. On someone who never did anything to him.

I can't say I care about him in the slightest.

Ping Pong

We have reported the matter to the police but in 9 weeks they have not found him despite us giving them a lot of details about him. Surely someone who owns a car, has a bank account, a doctor, a dentist can be found?

It's this bit I find puzzling. Either he's officially 'missing' or he isn't. Surely in this day and age and assuming the guy's okay, it's not too difficult for the police to find someone. Doesn't he have an employer or an office? Does this not imply that in fact, they know where he is, but unless he's charged with a criminal offence, they have no obligation to pass on his whereabouts?

I'm so sorry to hear this story. No daughter should have a Dad like this.

But, unless I'm missing something important, maybe best to wait till you're 100% sure about what's happened to him?

Best of luck!

Steve

PingPong wrote:My Niece is completely destroyed by this and has sunk into depression when she has a promising future at university waiting.

I really don't know what I can do to help. I feel so useless and the Police seem to have given up. Even if found the money is gone and he has no assets but we hope that he will get punished. Or as my Niece says, he will get away with it yet again.

You can be there for her. That will help.

Families eh?

I suppose as the money way talked about, she was looking forward to it, maybe making future plans on it. She probably needs to talk to someone, I'm not being funny, some sort of counselor. Or you. In a way, it's like a game show where you might win the jackpot of £25000, but end up walking away with nothing. She never had the money in the first place, so her life is no different, materially, than before. Loads of people will have to do exactly what she will do, start with nothing, and work from there. Psychologically it's harder for her, as she thought she was starting from something. No doubt, she'll have trust issues.

UncleIan wrote: She never had the money in the first place, so her life is no different, materially, than before. Loads of people will have to do exactly what she will do, start with nothing, and work from there. Psychologically it's harder for her, as she thought she was starting from something. No doubt, she'll have trust issues.

That's true, of course, but she also has to deal with the feeling of being let down and lied to by her own father - and the further 'loss' of her father which will be more of loss than the money.

stevensfo wrote:

We have reported the matter to the police but in 9 weeks they have not found him despite us giving them a lot of details about him. Surely someone who owns a car, has a bank account, a doctor, a dentist can be found?

It's this bit I find puzzling. Either he's officially 'missing' or he isn't. Surely in this day and age and assuming the guy's okay, it's not too difficult for the police to find someone. Doesn't he have an employer or an office? Does this not imply that in fact, they know where he is, but unless he's charged with a criminal offence, they have no obligation to pass on his whereabouts?

I'm so sorry to hear this story. No daughter should have a Dad like this.

But, unless I'm missing something important, maybe best to wait till you're 100% sure about what's happened to him?

Best of luck!

Steve

he has committed a criminal offence and he has deliberately dropped off the grid to avoid detection.
Sorry I did not make that clear.

And sorry I don't know how to use this site

It's not something I would do, and you or your neice might not wish to publicise her misfortune, but there appear to be many "Please share" type messages on Facebook, where folk are trying to find people or highlight this kind of behaviour.

It may be that a friend of a friend knows where he is and would respond if they saw something about this behaviour on Facebook.

It's not something I would do, and you or your neice might not wish to publicise her misfortune, but there appear to be many "Please share" type messages on Facebook, where folk are trying to find people or highlight this kind of behaviour.

It may be that a friend of a friend knows where he is and would respond if they saw something about this behaviour on Facebook.

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Hi Staff,

no he has completely disappeared off everything. And nobody is aware that he had any friends. Nor do we know where he works. The Police are after him but they appear to have put it on the back burner for lack of progress. I do not know what powers they have to find someone. You think that going via the DVLC they could find out what car he is driving. Or go to the bank where he has/had an account and find out who is paying his wages.

It seems simple to me but then I know nothing of what they are permitted to do and stealing £6500 is hardly crime of the century.

I simply have to work 40 saturdays in order to give her the money that my parents promised. Going to be a busy 12 months.

Ping Pong

PingPong wrote:It seems simple to me but then I know nothing of what they are permitted to do and stealing £6500 is hardly crime of the century.

It's not simple theft though, is it? It might even be a civil offence rather than a criminal one (not sure about this) so that would complicate things further, so I'm not really surprised your standard bobby is reluctant to start a manhunt.

Scott.

It's not simple theft though, is it? It might even be a civil offence rather than a criminal one (not sure about this) so that would complicate things further, so I'm not really surprised your standard bobby is reluctant to start a manhunt.

Scott.

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Hi Scott. Strangely it's both.

From a civil point of view that is the route to recover the money as the CPS are not debt collectors. Alas he will have no assets to collect from.

But it is a criminal offence. I had to prove who the money actually belonged to as at the initial interview they thought the money belonged to my brother. Then they had to take advice. Even if they do find him and interview him then it's down to the CPS to decide whether to prosecute or not.

I did find it rather peculiar that the Police did not know how an inheritance and how being a trustee worked but then they were all rather young. I expect that issue has not arisen in their own lives as yet.

Ping Pong

Unfortunately, your experience with the Plod doesn't surprise me at all. Their general policy these days seems to be to ignore fraud completely unless it's an open and shut case or it involves a sum of £100k or more. The fact that they haven't even bothered to find him when they could very easily do so is simply an illustration of their uselessness.

There's no way you can compel them to do anything, but it might be worth your niece contacting the Chief Constable and/or her MP to complain about them as that sometimes has an effect. But she will almost certainly receive a standard form reply about prioritising scarce resources and/or that it's a civil matter rather than a criminal one etc, etc.

So she is probably going to have to rely on her own resources.

My advice would be to employ a tracing agency. Most of them work on a `no trace no fee' basis, and the fee even if they don't find him is usually less than £100.

Here are a couple of firms that offer such services:

http://www.findukpeople.com/

https://findermonkey.co.uk/home1?utm_ex ... oCo13w_wcB

And here's a firm that I've personally used with a high degree of success - http://www.vilcol.com/

As he's only recently disappeared I would think there's a good chance of locating him.

Once he has been located your niece could sue him for the money. This would be a fairly simple process using Money Claim Online - https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome. Although the court fee for a £6,500 claim is £410 she could limit the claim to £5k, in which case the court fee would be £185.

However, it would only be worth suing him if he appears to have any prospect of being able to pay.

You say he has no assets, but if he's working the debt could be deducted from his wages through an Attachment of Earnings Order. It may also be that he has a pension fund. If so, and he is able to draw from it, a court order can be obtained that would effectively force him to do so in order to pay the debt. This is a very little known / used method of enforcement, and it's always a pleasure to educate people who have concealed their other assets and think they are exempt from enforcement!

Hi CK,

my solicitor is disgusted by the Police much as you are. They had promised to keep in touch every week but have not done so. My Niece will give up shortly and I can't do anything as I'm not the victim.

No point suing for the money as he has none. He will be living in a £90 a week all bills covered bedsit. And whilst it is possible to make an order against future earnings he has chucked his job at least twice in the past to shake off creditors. When he split with his wife he shook off 2 payday loan companies. I don't see us recovering a penny of what he stole. He does not have a pension as he has never been in a job that attracts one. He is one of those people who goes through life without ever getting punished for their crimes.

You are exactly on the same page as my own solicitor. Many thanks for your knowledgable reply.

Ping Pong

Hi CK,

I have just employed vilcol

I owe you a bunch.

Ping Pong

Was the money not originally in any special account, trust fund or otherwise, that she had documentary evidence of?

I mean, he spoke of 'her investment doing well', did he never give/show her any papers showing where it was?

yes, I thought the whole point of a trust fund is that the money is ring fenced, and only the beneficiary can get at it when they turn 18
I'm not a legal expert, so I guess there may be various types of trust

Biggles wrote:Was the money not originally in any special account, trust fund or otherwise, that she had documentary evidence of?

I mean, he spoke of 'her investment doing well', did he never give/show her any papers showing where it was?

Gents,

under normal circumstances an inheritance left to a child with the parent as the trustee requires the parent to look after it/invest it wisely. Why wouldn't you trust your son to look after the grandkids money?

Not sure where or when an actual 'trust fund' should be taken out. There are quite a few hurdles to be jumped when investing for a child due to money laundering. In my case I had to open 2 accounts in my name for my children. My brother did show his (now estranged) wife some paperwork shortly after he was granted custody of the money. It probably didn't stay there long.

As to the talk of her investment doing well it was just b/s. I don't know why he strung her along all these years but I guess by doing so he obtained several years more freedom. Hardly going to admit he spent it straight off.

Ping Pong

Oh well, good luck recovering the money. If there's any left.
Did a solicitor write up the original agreement?

AleisterCrowley wrote:Oh well, good luck recovering the money. If there's any left.
Did a solicitor write up the original agreement?

It was a bog standard basic will. I leave the grandkids x number of pounds and the trustee is y if they are under 18 at the time of my death.

Unless you have grandkids you probably don't have that line in your will. But ordinary folk like us don't set up 'trust funds' and I'm sure you trust your child to look after money intended for a grandchild. You just wouldn't think otherwise.

Having no children (and no will currently) I wouldn't know - but I always assumed the money would be held by a trusted third party in such cases.
Hope you catch up with him. A 'former friend ' of mine has got £4,000 of my cash and is making no efforts to pay it back - unfortunately he's in Australia so I can't find him and extract the cash/give him a good kicking