My mother (85) who has recently been diagnosed with early stage of Alzheimer has been a bit confused re her finances and asked one of my sister to look into it. She duly signed power of attorney in favour of my sister, and we started looking into her bank account. We have dicovered that over the last few months, it seems she has been unable to resist any "demand" for money. Any rep calling walks away with 1000s euro (she lives in France) of order, so 2500 euros has gone on wine in the last few months. She doesn't drink much, but at 100 euro + per bottle, she doesn't have to. Any charity sending a begging letter is rewarded with a generous cheque, but worst of all, a long standing family friend seems to be "borrowing" money freely. She has always borrowed from my mother, a few euros here and there, always paid it back (we think), in sevral installments. But since January, she has borrowed nearly 3000 euros, and no sign of money coming back in my mother's account. My mother consider her her only friend, and as she isn't an easy woman, she probably is right. We have solved the commercial situation by making sure as far as possible that she will no longer be solicited by rep. But how to tackle the "friend"? My mother's answer to it all is "well it's my money, I do want I want". She now denies having given my sister power of attorney, and accuses us of wanting to steal her money. This friend of my mother is poison and encourages her in that direction, but if she stops going to see my mother every day for coffe as she does, my mother wouldn't understand and would blame us of robbing her of her only friend. We could get the police involved, as there is a law in france you can use to protect vulnarable people, but we don't really want to drag my mother through all this. We also know that as soon as it become clear to this "friend" that she has no longer access to my mother's money, she will stop visiting. Any one with an answer?
