DEFRAUDING THE ELDERLY IS ELDER ABUSE

Research has shown that the sound of a baby crying triggers certain physical reactions including activating parts of the brain involved in fight-or-flight responses. Scientists have found that our brains are hard-wired to respond to the sound of a crying baby making us more attentive and priming our bodies to help whenever we hear it. Reading about the abuse of children can send some people into a frenzy accompanied by thoughts of revenge on the perpetrator as evidenced by some of the posts found on the internet. Children are defenceless, helpless and vulnerable in a society ruled by adults. Many countries have laws in place to protect children and their rights are recognized by the United Nations. On 20 November 1959, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted unanimously by all 78 Member States of the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 1386 (XIV). Article # 9 reads that children have: “The right to protection against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation.” Over the decades there has been much progress in detecting and addressing the issue of child abuse.

Children are not the only group in our society that is vulnerable to abuse. The elderly are also defenceless, helpless and vulnerable in many cases even though they are adults. In spite of the fact that many elderly are almost as helpless as children, progress in all areas of research, causes, consequences and interventions of elder abuse has been very slow. According to information on the Canadian (http://www.seniors.gc.ca/eng/pie/eaa/elderabuse.shtml) government website: “One in five Canadians believes they know of a senior who might be experiencing some form of abuse. Seniors from all walks of life are vulnerable to elder abuse and it is happening in communities across Canada.” The website defines elder abuse as: “Elder abuse is any action by someone in a relationship of trust that results in harm or distress to an older person. Neglect is a lack of action by that person in a relationship of trust with the same result. Commonly recognized types of elder abuse include physical, psychological and financial. Often, more than one type of abuse occurs at the same time. Abuse can be a single incident or a repeated pattern of behaviour. Financial abuse is the most commonly reported type of elder abuse.” A few months ago a friend who is a social worker raised the alarm as she told me that elder abuse was on the rise with many elderly people being defrauded of their property and life savings by relatives or people who pretended to be relatives. At the time I thought it was an interesting subject but there were many other interesting subjects to write about. More recently my siblings and I have had to actively deal with that subject as our elderly father was defrauded of his house and land in Guyana by a triumvirate of two women and a man who slithered their way into our father’s life.

Our first inkling that all was not well was a desperate message from my father’s nurse (in Guyana) that an eviction notice on my father’s house and property had been served by a man who lives in New York City. My father had suffered a stroke in 2012 and had made great progress over more than a year of therapy. He travelled back and forth from Canada to Guyana where he has/had a house that was supposed to be a place where he could enjoy months away from the winter each year following his retirement. A nurse lived in my father’s house in Guyana to take care of my father. It was with great shock that we realised that Compton Scipio, a man who lives in New York along with his sister Carlotta Scipio Bowman who lives in Toronto under the alias Carlotta Caesar and her daughter Tamara Bowman who lives in Guyana had colluded to defraud my elderly and vulnerable father of the proceeds of his hard earned life’s work. We could not believe how easily these people had gained possession of my father’s documents including his Canadian passport. The passport was not difficult to recover because after the woman in Guyana refused to return my father’s passport we contacted the Canadian government representative in Guyana who demanded that she surrender the passport to the Canadian embassy or face the consequences.

At first there was denial/disbelief: "You could not just take someone's house; that is impossible!" However, there it was in the Official Gazette of Guyana in black and white; this man who lives in New York City had gained possession of my father's house, his name was on the transport and the date he gained possession, October 10th 2015. I stared in disbelief at the words that meant all the hard work and sacrifices my father had made working his entire youth and adult life to secure his future and his old age had been wiped out by a crooked family. The date now seems to be seared into my memory; this man had fraudulently gained ownership of my elderly father's property (56/57 Atlantic Ville, East Coast Demerara, Guyana) on October 10th 2015.

I was in shock, still am. There have been sleepless nights and tears hoping to wake up from this nightmare. My emotions have vacillated between grief and anger. Various thoughts race through my mind including: How did this happen? It could not be true. Surely no one could be this wicked, this evil to rob an elderly man of the results of years of hard work. Surely Guyana has laws against this kind of fraud/elder abuse. Papa used to be a police officer surely there would be help from a fraud squad. This cannot be happening to my Papa who worked so hard to make provision to ensure comfort in his old age!

Over the past few months I have found that the sound of my elderly father crying triggers certain physical reactions including activating parts of my brain involved in fight responses. I have found that the sound of my elderly father crying triggers thoughts of revenge against the trio who defrauded him of his house. I had seen my father cry twice before; when his mother transitioned (he was her last child and they had a special bond) and when my mother transitioned. This is different, now Papa is defenceless, helpless and vulnerable in a society that does not seem to care about the vulnerability of the elderly.

As of August 31, 2016 my elderly, vulnerable father had to be removed from his house which had been fraudulently obtained by a man who lives in New York City and whose niece and her children now occupy my father's house. It is distressing when he does not sometimes understand that he cannot go back to his house because someone else is living there. I am here in Toronto feeling helpless and just hoping that I do not ever run into the third party of the triumvirate (who lives in Toronto) who stole my father's house. I am not sure I would be able to quietly watch her and not publicly expose her perfidy! I have to hold on to the good thought that “justice will prevail!!”

My father did not survive the shock of having to be moved from his home and one month later he transitioned. He was distressed and I hold Compton Scipio of Far Rockaway New York, Carlotta Scipio Bowman alias Carlotta Caesar of Toronto and Tamara Bowman who now lives in my father's house at 56/57 Atlantic Ville on the East Coast, Demerara, Guyana directly responsible for my father no longer being alive. They stole his house and his life.