The 'repugnant' son who charged his own MOTHER £400-a-day for visiting her care home

A financial consultant charged his own mother £400 a day for visiting her in her care home, it was revealed yesterday.

The 62-year-old son pocketed nearly £120,000 from his mother’s fortune in ‘expenses’ yet failed to pay her care home fees, according to investigators.

And he refused to pay the care home for her hairdressing, toiletries and chiropody, on the grounds that ‘I don’t think she needs colour tinting.’

The behaviour of the financial consultant from Gerrard’s Cross in Buckinghamshire was condemned by a judge as ‘repugnant’. 

'Callous': A 62-year-old financial consultant has been stripped of his power of attorney over his elderly mother after charging her £400-a-time for visiting (file photo)

Senior Judge Denzil Lush told the Court of Protection: ‘One would be hard pressed to find a more callous and calculating attorney, who has so flagrantly abused his position of trust.’

The judge stripped the son, identified only as Martin, of the power to act as attorney for his mother. In that role the son controlled her financial affairs and the proceeds of her house, which was sold nearly nine years ago for £189,000.

Senior Judge Lush added: ‘I believe that charging one’s elderly mother a daily rate of £400 for visiting and acting as her attorney is repugnant.’

Martin, a former project manager for accountancy combine Ernst and Young, became an independent financial consultant in the 1990s. 

Now retired, he told the court that he charged his mother the same rate for visiting her at her Herefordshire nursing home, and for managing her affairs, as he would have charged his business clients.

He said it was pointless to pay the money back to her now because it would all come to him anyway, since his mother would be dead ‘sooner rather than later.’

His mother, identified only as Sheila, is an 87-year-old widow who suffers from dementia. She entered a care home in Llandrindod Wells in 2004 and then moved to a nursing home in 2013 because of her declining health. An investigator who visited her last year said ‘she showed no evidence of being able to understand anything at all.’

Her son took over her affairs under an ‘enduring power of attorney’ order made in 2004.

The investigations officer for the Office of the Public Guardian, Sophie Farley, said Sheila had an unpaid nursing home bill of £29,000 and ‘her son, Martin, rarely visits her’.

Punishment: The man, named only as Martin, was dealt with at the Court of Protection, which meets in the London's Royal Courts of Justice, pictured

The court heard that Martin had paid himself £49,143.19 of his mother’s money for time he had spent on a dispute with a Welsh NHS board, which he said should have paid her care home fees. When the NHS Board conceded the case and reimbursed the fees, Martin paid the £68,146.26 cheque to himself, ‘in part payment for the costs he had incurred.’

One would be hard pressed to find a more callous and calculating attorney, who has so flagrantly abused his position of trust

Senior Judge Denzil Lush, Court of Protection

Miss Farley said the total of £117,289.45 was ‘an excessive amount to claim for out of pocket expenses.’

Martin also owed the Herefordshire care home £496.50 for personal care provided for his mother since June 2014.

He told the court: ‘We get charged a lot for toiletries. I also don’t think she needs colour tinting. I know these are small points. I paid the charges in 2014 and I was going to pay them this year.’

He added that the daily rate of £400 for visiting and for work put into the dispute with the NHS board was his usual daily charging rate when he was a self-employed financial consultant.

Martin opposed a demand from the Office of the Public Guardian that he be replaced as attorney by a deputy appointed by the court. ‘I see no need to replace myself,’ he said.

‘I am the sole heir and because of my mother’s dementia and current poor health, there is no need to protect the estate’s financial interests, which are effectively mine.’

He said of a further demand that he pay the money he took in expenses back to his mother that it ‘made little sense.’

Martin said: ‘I am the sole beneficiary of the estate and any restitution I made would come straight back to me on my mother’s death, which considering her present state of health, is likely to be sooner rather than later.’

Senior Judge Lush said of Martin: ‘He even begrudges her having her hair tinted.’ Martin had, the judge said, ‘persistently acted in bad faith.’

The judge added: ‘Martin suggested that the appointment of a panel deputy would be a waste of time and money because his mother’s estate is effectively already his. I disagree.

‘The panel deputy will, for the first time in eleven years, place Sheila at the centre of the decision-making process, rather than view the preservation and enhancement of Martin’s inheritance as the paramount consideration.’ 

 DailyMail