I assume this is a common concern.
My father in law lives in sheltered accommodation and will soon be 94. His bills are paid by direct debit and other expenses - cleaning, laundry are paid by cash. He doesn't go out to the shops, and hasn't as far as we know acquired any new clothing, possessions etc. We recently became concerned because he seemed to be acquiring a lot of DVDs which he then passed on to us, mostly still in their original wrapping, saying he didn't want them but was sure we would enjoy them. (30 in the last 3 weeks.)
We looked up his bank statements - we have power of attorney - and found about £300 worth of cheques had been written since January. At first we thought this must be to do with the DVDs, though the spacing was very odd with quite a few all having been written on the same day. But after conferring with my brother-in-law it turned out he was buying the DVDs as a gift. (Though he's now a bit fed up about them not being watched.)
We're now going to a) ask my father-in-law about the cheques b) look at the stubs and c) if necessary find out from the bank where the money was spent.
My father-in-law only has a modest income from pensions, so we're a bit worried. He was diagnosed with mixed dementia last autumn.
My father in law lives in sheltered accommodation and will soon be 94. His bills are paid by direct debit and other expenses - cleaning, laundry are paid by cash. He doesn't go out to the shops, and hasn't as far as we know acquired any new clothing, possessions etc. We recently became concerned because he seemed to be acquiring a lot of DVDs which he then passed on to us, mostly still in their original wrapping, saying he didn't want them but was sure we would enjoy them. (30 in the last 3 weeks.)
We looked up his bank statements - we have power of attorney - and found about £300 worth of cheques had been written since January. At first we thought this must be to do with the DVDs, though the spacing was very odd with quite a few all having been written on the same day. But after conferring with my brother-in-law it turned out he was buying the DVDs as a gift. (Though he's now a bit fed up about them not being watched.)
We're now going to a) ask my father-in-law about the cheques b) look at the stubs and c) if necessary find out from the bank where the money was spent.
My father-in-law only has a modest income from pensions, so we're a bit worried. He was diagnosed with mixed dementia last autumn.