Another example of Bank's negligence
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/ontario-family-suing-rbc-62k-091315342.html
Banks don't bother to check that signatures match up. Checking accounts are the most unsecured accounts in Canada.
Victim realized in two years that the account was drained out ..Hmm
Location: Western Hemisphere
Posted on: 19-08-11 15:44:53
Quote:
Originally posted by Newlyborn
Victim realized in two years that the account was drained out ..Hmm
Exactly. There is no reason for someone to be equally dumb just because the banks are supposedly careless. Whatever happened to diligence and personal responsibility?
With everything available online, it is all the more easy to check frequently and be alert of any discrepancies. I check my credit card and bank accounts at least couple of times a week, especially, credit cards.
It is the same stupidity when someone complains they received a water bill for $8000 after 2 years. You got to wonder why you wouldn't know you haven't paid the water bill in 24 months. Idiots.
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Dimple2001
Quote:
Originally posted by dimple2001
Quote:
Originally posted by Newlyborn
Victim realized in two years that the account was drained out ..Hmm
Exactly. There is no reason for someone to be equally dumb just because the banks are supposedly careless. Whatever happened to diligence and personal responsibility.
With everything available online, it is all the more easy to check frequently and be alert of any discrepancies. I check my credit card and bank accounts at least couple of times a week, especially, credit cards.
It is the same stupidity when someone complaints they received a water bill for $8000 after 2 years. You got to wonder why you wouldn't know you haven't paid the water bill in 24 months. Idiots.
Right said Fred! Too easy these days to blame institutions for anything wrong with their own financial irresponsibility.
Location: Somewhere in dreamland
Posted on: 19-08-11 16:39:37
I think everyone is quick to judge the victim
The victim is 92 years old, bedridden and has no children. How can you expect her to check online statements?
The caretaker who stole her money used to threaten her saying her phone was being monitored (so that she couldn't tell her plight to her relatives)
Read the story below
http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=7460c066-9a9a-45e8-9dcc-8d9ace164080&p=1
Senior stripped of savings, dignity
Woman steals $82K from 92-year-old
Sarah Sacheli
The Windsor Star
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Carrie Bertrand leaves the Ontario Court of Justice Tuesday after pleading guilty to fraud.
Carrie Bertrand moved into an elderly Essex woman's house promising home-cooked meals and companionship.
Instead, Bertrand emptied the 92-year-old woman's bank account and served up daily doses of intimidation and neglect.
Bertrand, 44, pleaded guilty to defrauding the elderly woman out of more than $82,000. She appeared in Ontario court Tuesday and listened seemingly dispassionately as the elderly woman's niece read a statement about how Bertrand's crimes have affected her family. Debbie Landriault told of how her life has been turned upside down since taking Aunt Dorothy into her Ottawa home and how her aunt lost both her life savings and her dignity.
Bertrand moved in with Aunt Dorothy in 2007. Dorothy, who'd suffered a stroke in 1999, had fallen and broken her hip a year before in 2006 and conceded that at age 90, she shouldn't live alone any longer. The new living arrangements were arranged by Bertrand's parents, who had been Dorothy's friends for decades. Bertrand was to cook Dorothy's meals and do her laundry and housekeeping in exchange for free rent. But soon Bertrand took over the two-bedroom trailer home in Viscount Estates, letting her teenage son and his girlfriend move in. Dorothy spent her days confined to her bedroom with only a 12-inch television for company.
Landriault spoke to her aunt on the phone regularly. Looking back, the conversations grew shorter and more generic as time went on. Landriault chalked it up to her aunt getting on in years, when in reality, Bertrand had told Dorothy that her phone calls were being recorded.
Then came a phone call in August 2009 from the manager at Dorothy's bank telling Landriault that her aunt's account was overdrawn.
Landriault started investigating, finding that a car, televisions, computers, furniture, casino trips and even tattoos and body piercings had been paid out of her aunt's finances.
The utility bills that Bertrand was supposed to be paying out of the bank account were all in arrears.
Landriault jumped in the car and drove to Essex from Ottawa, stopping in Arnprior to pick up her sister Diane Saunders. Together they arrived unannounced at Aunt Dorothy's home. It was nearly noon. They found Bertrand's son and girlfriend still in bed and Dorothy in her stuffy bedroom, with a wool blanket on her bed despite the 90-degree heat. The windows in her bedroom were taped shut and squirrelled away in her drawers -- for days when she wouldn't be fed -- were bits of food wrapped in napkins or tissue.
"After seeing what I saw, I knew I couldn't leave here there," said Landriault. She packed up her aunt and told Bertrand to get out.
When the sisters returned later, all the furnishings that Aunt Dorothy had unwittingly paid for were gone, as were her tub chair, raised toilet seat and other devices that made it possible for Aunt Dorothy to live in her own home. The trailer was trashed and contractors are still making repairs so Landriault can put it up for sale.
Away from Bertrand's control, Dorothy finally told her nieces what her life had been like. "She felt like a stranger in her own home," said Saunders.
"She said, 'I prayed someone would come and rescue me.' " Landriault, a manager at an Ottawa hospital, said it has been stressful working fulltime and being the primary caregiver for her aunt. A recent grandmother, Landriault said she hasn't been accessible to her own family because she knows her aunt needs her.
While Aunt Dorothy's body is failing, her mental faculties remain intact. She has no children of her own and thrived to be independent. Since her husband died 30 years ago, she lived frugally, saving money for the day she would have to move into a nursing home. It both infuriates and embarrasses her that her nest egg was squandered on strangers.
As part of a plea bargain, Bertrand pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000.
Charged in August 2009, she waited a year to enter a guilty plea. The Crown was making arrangements for a trial, and having Landriault's aunt give her testimony remotely from Ottawa.
Landriault feared her aunt would die without the case being resolved, meaning the charges against Bertrand would be withdrawn. "I think that's what she was hoping for," Landriault said.
Landriault and her sister have twice driven to Windsor for court appearances that have been adjourned. The case was delayed again Tuesday -- Bertrand was to be sentenced, but her lawyer told the court he wanted to speak to the prosecutor about the case again.
Ontario court Justice Lloyd Dean granted an adjournment, but said he realized Landriault had come a long way and allowed her to read her victim impact statement in court. When Landriault finished, Dean offered her words of encouragement.
"Your aunt is lucky to have had you," he said.
Dean will sentence Bertrand Dec. 10.
Location: Western Hemisphere
Posted on: 19-08-11 19:01:19
Alright, my bad. I take back what I said in the context of this article. However, I still stand by what I said as far as a lot of people not taking responsibility or showing diligence regarding their finances. Negligence on the part of the bank in this case, yes, but simply implying a blanket statement that banks (or Cdn banks) are not safe is little overstretched. It is analogous to stating all financial advisors might be thieves (and hence not safe) based on few episodes that have erupted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dimple2001
Quote:
Originally posted by brown_bear
I think everyone is quick to judge the victim
The victim is 92 years old, bedridden and has no children. How can you expect her to check online statements?
The caretaker who stole her money used to threaten her saying her phone was being monitored (so that she couldn't tell her plight to her relatives)
Read the story below
http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=7460c066-9a9a-45e8-9dcc-8d9ace164080&p=1
Senior stripped of savings, dignity
Woman steals $82K from 92-year-old
Sarah Sacheli
The Windsor Star
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Carrie Bertrand leaves the Ontario Court of Justice Tuesday after pleading guilty to fraud.
Carrie Bertrand moved into an elderly Essex woman's house promising home-cooked meals and companionship.
Instead, Bertrand emptied the 92-year-old woman's bank account and served up daily doses of intimidation and neglect.
Bertrand, 44, pleaded guilty to defrauding the elderly woman out of more than $82,000. She appeared in Ontario court Tuesday and listened seemingly dispassionately as the elderly woman's niece read a statement about how Bertrand's crimes have affected her family. Debbie Landriault told of how her life has been turned upside down since taking Aunt Dorothy into her Ottawa home and how her aunt lost both her life savings and her dignity.
Bertrand moved in with Aunt Dorothy in 2007. Dorothy, who'd suffered a stroke in 1999, had fallen and broken her hip a year before in 2006 and conceded that at age 90, she shouldn't live alone any longer. The new living arrangements were arranged by Bertrand's parents, who had been Dorothy's friends for decades. Bertrand was to cook Dorothy's meals and do her laundry and housekeeping in exchange for free rent. But soon Bertrand took over the two-bedroom trailer home in Viscount Estates, letting her teenage son and his girlfriend move in. Dorothy spent her days confined to her bedroom with only a 12-inch television for company.
Landriault spoke to her aunt on the phone regularly. Looking back, the conversations grew shorter and more generic as time went on. Landriault chalked it up to her aunt getting on in years, when in reality, Bertrand had told Dorothy that her phone calls were being recorded.
Then came a phone call in August 2009 from the manager at Dorothy's bank telling Landriault that her aunt's account was overdrawn.
Landriault started investigating, finding that a car, televisions, computers, furniture, casino trips and even tattoos and body piercings had been paid out of her aunt's finances.
The utility bills that Bertrand was supposed to be paying out of the bank account were all in arrears.
Landriault jumped in the car and drove to Essex from Ottawa, stopping in Arnprior to pick up her sister Diane Saunders. Together they arrived unannounced at Aunt Dorothy's home. It was nearly noon. They found Bertrand's son and girlfriend still in bed and Dorothy in her stuffy bedroom, with a wool blanket on her bed despite the 90-degree heat. The windows in her bedroom were taped shut and squirrelled away in her drawers -- for days when she wouldn't be fed -- were bits of food wrapped in napkins or tissue.
"After seeing what I saw, I knew I couldn't leave here there," said Landriault. She packed up her aunt and told Bertrand to get out.
When the sisters returned later, all the furnishings that Aunt Dorothy had unwittingly paid for were gone, as were her tub chair, raised toilet seat and other devices that made it possible for Aunt Dorothy to live in her own home. The trailer was trashed and contractors are still making repairs so Landriault can put it up for sale.
Away from Bertrand's control, Dorothy finally told her nieces what her life had been like. "She felt like a stranger in her own home," said Saunders.
"She said, 'I prayed someone would come and rescue me.' " Landriault, a manager at an Ottawa hospital, said it has been stressful working fulltime and being the primary caregiver for her aunt. A recent grandmother, Landriault said she hasn't been accessible to her own family because she knows her aunt needs her.
While Aunt Dorothy's body is failing, her mental faculties remain intact. She has no children of her own and thrived to be independent. Since her husband died 30 years ago, she lived frugally, saving money for the day she would have to move into a nursing home. It both infuriates and embarrasses her that her nest egg was squandered on strangers.
As part of a plea bargain, Bertrand pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000.
Charged in August 2009, she waited a year to enter a guilty plea. The Crown was making arrangements for a trial, and having Landriault's aunt give her testimony remotely from Ottawa.
Landriault feared her aunt would die without the case being resolved, meaning the charges against Bertrand would be withdrawn. "I think that's what she was hoping for," Landriault said.
Landriault and her sister have twice driven to Windsor for court appearances that have been adjourned. The case was delayed again Tuesday -- Bertrand was to be sentenced, but her lawyer told the court he wanted to speak to the prosecutor about the case again.
Ontario court Justice Lloyd Dean granted an adjournment, but said he realized Landriault had come a long way and allowed her to read her victim impact statement in court. When Landriault finished, Dean offered her words of encouragement.
"Your aunt is lucky to have had you," he said.
Dean will sentence Bertrand Dec. 10.
OMG scary insight into old age to be spent in north america...
