... if you are lucky enough to get away with it through lack of evidence. Sad to report this but I thought I would throw this one out here to show just how mean and uncaring some people are. A friend we know who has autism, which means he has no sense of danger or people's intentions towards him, he's vulnerable is the best way to desribe it. He has daily care as he has other medical conditions so needs help bathing, cookinng meals, general routine and so on. Unfortunately before Christmas, his main carer had to leave abruptly for family reasons and we do know that social services who deal with who does what and when were unable to find workers to fill the void which under the circumstances, I understand them saying they try and get people to live as independently, all very well but it's not applicable in all cases, in this one I find it unbelievable that they allowed what has happened to take place and to be honest, feel they should share the blame here. To keep to the main facts, a couple in their forties who live close by befriended our friend and on learning of the lack of care, the woman [who we now know is an alcoholic] told him that she had a son with Aspergers [a milder form of autism as I understand it] and was also a registered nurse and was happy to help on the odd days he didn't have anyone there, between 4pm and 6pm as was his routine although she and her boyfriend [who we have now discovered isn't an alcoholic but a drug-user] both visited him on occasions between 5pm and 6pm where she would help with bathtime, washing hair, preparing his evening meal, helping with changing, getting him ready for bed, she did all that very well he has told support workers and the police. Wasn't too long before she asked if he could give them some money for helping him and he being him didn't see any reason why not and they began taking £30 each week and as we've learned through our friends more, they would ask for it earlier than the agreed time so he would be confused as to how much and when - also they began using his landline phone and mobile phone for personal use and we know [although he feels hurt and embarrassed to say the full extent], smaller sums of money were asked for and taken. We also know that the man went and knocked our friends door at 3.30am for money to get drink for her because she was shaking. Some of you reading this may be thinking there is far worse to come and there is. We know that when they were both there, at bathtime she would close the bathroom door. He has said that he did not like this but did not feel able to say it, he does not have much confidence or social skills anyway. Now the flat is small and the bathroom is actually next to the hallway before the front door so you could, if you were in the bathroom, see anyone going out or coming in through that door. So to the incident of theft. He discovered it on a Monday morning when he went to buy a new dressing gown. He is able to go out locally unattended but more often than not would choose to shop only with a support worker. So his account was £25 he thought there should be a lot more. He went back home and told a carer who took a look into his account online. That particular weekend he had felt unwell, been in bed most of the time so had not left his flat. And as we understand it, these people upstairs were helping [and we use that term very loosely] at weekends and any other day when a usual support worker wasn't available, It transpired that over the Friday, Saturday and the Sunday amounts by ATM for £140 were taken and later on the behaviour had started the previous Monday, £30 amounts each time. So it was reported to his bank. Because his card hadn't been cloned and the money was withdrawn from an ATM, the bank won't refund the money without an explanation, quite fair in our view too. When they took it to the police he was interviewed and asked the names of any persons he had let into his flat so he revealed the names of the neighbours, his social worker I make clear knew of them helping and had no suspicions or reason to be concerned until the discovery of the missing money. Both these people have records and are known you'll not be surprised to hear but he has a number of convictions for exploitation which is something to consider. What evidence is there? Well, the ATM traced was about 30 seconds wal away at the end of his road. CCTV? Yes, apparently overlooking the machine. All the transactions were at the times that this couple would have been in his flat. The police think that what happened was she purposely closed the bathroom door enabling her boyfriend to take the card, get the money and put the card, which our friend we know would leave out in the open anyway, this would have been an easy thing to do, put the card back so that it was never to him, actually missing. Yes, well it seems to have gone missing for a few minutes each day, presumably the card hasn't grown legs and walked to the cash machine and back and this was going on while he was in the bath with the door closed with the lady concerned. The problem is now that there can be no conviction because of lack of evidence. The shop did give a disc to police officers but it was the wrong one and so nothing matched when viewed. Because of the time scale, around ten weeks now, they say street cameras wouldn't have anything. These people were instructed to attend the police station for questioning. They went each with their own solicitor and said "no comment" throughout the entire questioning. An absolute representation of guilt IMO given the circumstances, I could be wrong but I wouldn't have thought we'd need Columbo here. There will be no further action taken it seems due to lack of evidence. The police will later contact the fraud team at the bank with all the information and we hope that our friend will have his money returned. There is a silver lining however in that through this incident and other misuses of property and beong out of contract, these neighbours are being given two months notice to leave. But I am that hacked off at them knowing that they are getting away with stealing from a vulnerable person and how revolting they are but even though this has taken a fair time to type and talk about the injustice, worth it to tell others who may want to comment on it. There really are some despicable people around aren't there.
Crime definitely pays our daughter a good salary, and now her younger sister in planning to make even more money from it. LOL.
It's common place! What you need to Do, is demand the police take action! Inform the benefits agency.. stop that couple from entering his home! Tell his family!!!
The first sensible reply, thank you. I certainly doubt they would have declared their extra money to benefit agency. The couple have been told not to go down to his flat and they have agreed. I don't think it's possible to demand that the police take action?
I believe there is a system where you can inform the chief constable of your local police that an offence is not being taken seriously enough, and ask that it be reviewed.. chances are slim, but it's there..
Thanks, I will. pass this on. I for one am keen to help ensure the poor chap at least gets his money back.
There's the question of how they got his PIN too which I didn't include because I forgot in the OP. We think they got it either two ways. One, on shopping trips where she went with him, we know of two such occasions where he may not have shielded with his hand at the checkout. He has been told about this as being careful but most of the time would forget, we have to bear in mind that he is very trusting, it doesn't take much for him to accept people as being very kind. And the other occasion where either of them may have witnessed what he typed into the ATM keypad was an occasion where he had gone with both of them to withdraw the amount of £30 for this care which he had agreed with them to do. I'm not convinced myself just yet that the police are treating this seriously enough but - if there is lack of evidence, what more can they do? The bank took an eternity apparently providing the police with the transaction times and as a result, the CCTV evidence, well as it's not available from the camera that sits above the ATM, surely there's something they could find through the street cameras in that road? Or do they only record for a certain period of time, like the store - the ATM in question is outside a food and wine store.
