Residents are being warned after the county’s trading standards team claimed it discovered a director from an unregulated legal firm had been syphoning money out of £3.5 million from deceased estates.
Devon’s trading standards team, which is part of Devon County Council, said the director had been syphoning money out illegally for his own businesses.
One of its officers took a witness statement from the finance manager, and the director is now being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority, which leads on unregulated legal practices.
“This £3.5million is entirely from deceased estates awaiting distribution to the legal beneficiaries,” said Alex Fry, Heart of the South West Trading Standards head of operations.
“It was not the property of the director or the firm to withdraw from and potentially fraudulent if any money was removed from this account for any other purpose.”
Mr Fry added the case was referred to the CMA for further investigation because “it is beyond our remit to further investigate”.
“Consumers are advised to carry out some checks if they are contacted as beneficiaries from a deceased estate,” Mr Fry said.
“This money is genuinely meant for distribution from Wills and Trusts but sometimes firms struggle to gain trust to hand over what is due to [people] so the money sits in these unregulated legal firms’ accounts and unscrupulous businesses can be tempted to withdraw the funds illegally.”
Mr Fry said the Financial Conduct Authority or Citizens Advice can help to reassure beneficiaries that they are due money from a loved one.
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