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Prevalence of older people being scammed in Barnet appears

A Barnet Council health and wellbeing panel discussed the growing trend of elderly fraud and its effects, including isolation, health problems and premature death.

Fiona Bateman, chair of a London-based safeguarding council for adults, told local NHS and council healthcare leaders yesterday (Thursday 9) that 210 people had lost a total of £250,000 this year , and most targets were aged 65 and over. .

Although not isolated to Barnet, local examples have been discussed.

Dr Nikesh Dattani, acting clinical lead for Barnet at NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) said he had seen four victims of the scams come into his GP practice in Barnet.

He said: “We have seen a huge increase in the number of patients being cheated. The newest scam is that care agencies, small private agencies, come in, befriend the patients who care for them for about a month or two, and then take money out of their accounts or get names on their wills and estates.

“In the last two years in my practice I’ve seen four patients who have had this happen to them and it’s very sad because it affects people who have no relatives or family so they’re alone.”

Dr Dattani said he had also seen an increase in people “knocking on doors” and “taking them to the bank”, but was relieved some banks had flagged the large cash withdrawals.

He suggested to Helen Newman, chief executive of Age UK Barnet, the charity which hosts day events at GP surgeries, and to integrate more with primary care as it was a place where over-65s years and over “felt safe”.

He continued: “I wonder if it’s possible to reach GPs and educate and stop these patients being targeted because they trust us and know the environment is safe.”

He added that once cheated, many of these patients “didn’t leave the house” and were “too scared to go anywhere”.

Helen welcomed the idea and added that the charity was “working closely” with some of the banks in Barnet, explaining that they had recently visited a Barclays in Edgware to discuss the issue and were also trying to work with local pharmacies.

She said Age UK had evidence that within a year of the scam, those aged 65 and over were “more likely to die or be in a care home”.

Helen added that the charity is running a national “scam awareness project” which was recently extended for another two years.

She said: “Scams have a huge impact, a hidden impact, even if the victim hasn’t been isolated before, they can become very fast.”

She explained that the project also aims to help older people achieve digital inclusion, but acknowledged the risk of scams.

Helen added that the charity wanted to show that it wasn’t “too scary to go online and learn and understand” and that they were holding pop-ups around the borough to educate people.

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