Brothers conned into signing over farm to church minister

Three elderly brothers who were conned out of their family farm by a church minister and a local businessman were not in the right state of mind to sign anything, a relative has told the BBC.

Helen Fraser said her cousins Hugh, Roderick and David McCulloch were "groomed" into signing power of attorney documents by the two men.

Reverend Ivan Warwick and businessman Douglas Stewart then sold the farmhouse and drained the bank accounts of the vulnerable victims, one of whom had dementia and the other two who were diagnosed later.

The case has led to calls for safeguards around the use of power of attorney - an issue more pressing with an ageing population and more people likely to get dementia.

Power of attorney is designed to allow trusted people to manage money and personal needs if someone becomes incapable of dealing with these matters themselves.

A police investigation into the McCulloch case in 2017 concluded no crime had taken place because Warwick and Stewart had legal permission to act on behalf of the brothers.

It took a civil court case brought by relatives to find that the two men had exerted "undue influence" over the brothers.

Warwick and Stewart were ordered to repay more £1m taken from the McCullochs, who have since died, but their surviving family has not received any money.

After a legal battle lasting more than seven years, the police have now said they are reviewing evidence in the case.

Ms Fraser told the BBC she had been visiting the McCulloch brothers - her second cousins - every fortnight for years, at their farm near Muir of Ord on the Black Isle.

The brothers were unmarried and there were no children to take on their beloved Logie Farm, where they had lived for 30 years, raising cattle and sheep.

One day in August 2017, Ms Fraser found Hugh and Roddy in a distressed state and their farmhouse stripped bare.

The brothers told her they no longer owned it.

Ms Fraser says that Warwick, a Church of Scotland minister who had preached to King Charles, had befriended Hugh, Roddy and David years earlier.

Along with Stewart, he persuaded the brothers, who were in their late 70s and 80s, into granting them power of attorney in 2013.

The following year the farm was transferred to Warwick and Stewart.

After persuading their victims into giving away their home and land, the two men sold the farmhouse and drained their bank accounts.

Later it would transpire the men had robbed the brothers of more than £1m.

Ms Fraser thinks the McCulloch brothers were forced into giving the farm away.

"I never thought they were in the right state of mind to sign anything," she said.

"They were groomed.

"They always had a smile on their face, and to be abused by these crooks, its just so sad."

After finding out about the scam, Ms Fraser contacted the police and social work also got involved.

An investigation was launched but as the power of attorney document was legally valid, it did not ring alarm bells for the police and the investigation was closed.

According to the brothers cousin Hugh Fraser, the farm was supposed to pass to him.

"When we used to go visiting, Roddy and Hugh would always say this will all be yours someday," he said.

"They were real gentlemen."

A former farmer himself Mr Fraser would have been happy to take the farm.

But he said he is speaking out now because he wants justice for the men.

In 2021, one of two civil cases ordered Warwick and Stewart to repay the money they had made from the fraud.

Sheriff Sara Matheson said the men had exerted undue influence over the McCullochs.

She slated Warwick for using his position as minister to add a "veneer of respectability" to the scam.

He is no longer a minister in the Church of Scotland.

After the court decision, there was a review of the handling of the McCulloch case by the NHS, police and council.

A Highland Adult Support and Protection Committee report has since stated: "There is no evidence that the investigation ever properly considered the possibility that the POAs (power of attorneys) might have been "grooming" the brothers."

It also highlighted the special role of people who are assigned as attorneys.

It said: "A Power of Attorney is in a uniquely powerful position and is ordinarily unsupervised in their role.

"Consideration of the potential for coercive control should be routine."

The solicitor who acted for the McCullochs was Victoria Leslie, joint managing partner of Ledingham Chalmers.

She told BBC Scotland News that abuse of power of attorney was not uncommon but cases as severe as this were "extremely unusual".

She said: "Unfortunately its not too unusual to have attorneys financially exploiting individuals, particularly vulnerable individuals but the scale of this particular case is much larger.

"For the most part, attorneys act responsibly and in the best interest of the adult, but there does need to be greater safeguards in place to prevent cases like this from happening."

If you have power of attorney for someone, it means you can act on their behalf.

The person who is assigned as the attorney can withdraw money from the bank, go shopping for them, collect pension or benefits and buy and sell property.

Receipts for spending are supposed to be kept but no-one checks this.

"Attorneys are not supervised, theyre not monitored," Ms Leslie said.

"Youre essentially stepping into their shoes and handling their finances on their behalf so you should only carry out any transactions if its in that persons interests."

According to Ms Leslie there could be stricter checks at the point when the attorney is appointed and greater guidance given on what their legal duties are.

She also said their could be stronger financial oversight on how an attorney acts such as spot checks or producing financial records for certain transactions.

However, she said: "There has to be a balance between protecting an individual and implementing measures that are practical for attorneys to carry out."

Helen Fraser says she has been speaking to police who are continuing their inquiries into what happened.

"All I want is justice for the brothers," she said.

"They never got it when they were living and before I leave this world, I want justice for the McCullochs."

Last year, the Scottish government started to look at extra safeguards to protect vulnerable people and ways in which power of attorney could be changed.

It opened a consultation to the Adults with Incapacity Act which covers this.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "We fully support the use of powers of attorney as a way of ensuring the rights, will and preference of a person are fully respected should they lack capacity in the future.

"A power of attorney (PoA) is granted by a person when they had capacity and is evidence that they wanted the attorney to have the powers granted."

The spokesperson said the Scottish government had recently published analysis of responses to a consultation on reform of the Adults with Incapacity Act, including powers of attorney and guardianship orders.

"We are now considering those responses and working towards modernising the Adults with Incapacity Act, taking forward recommendations from the Scottish Mental Health Law Review" they said.