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CNJ investigation sparks review on house clearances
COUNCIL bosses have ordered a review into how the property of the vulnerable is protected after a New Journal investigation revealed potential for theft and abuse when officials emptied a dying 92-year-old’s flat into a skip.
On Tuesday, the chiefs of the Social Care and Housing departments wrote to the New Journal to say they were “reviewing our processes and procedures to ensure we are doing the best we can to properly protect the property of vulnerable people in our care” following the story of Gospel Oak pensioner Dorothy Robinson.
As Mrs Robinson lay dying in a Cricklewood nursing home on January 4, housing officials changed the locks on her Lissenden Gardens flat in Gospel Oak and cleared its contents.
Because she had no official next of kin, council policy demanded that it be disposed of into a skip.
But no inventory was taken, as officials later admitted, causing neighbours to accuse the council of looting the flat of valuable furniture.
Officials also admitted they could not say how many inventories were taken in the 1,200 occasions last year when the council cleared homes belonging to the dead, ill, missing or evicted, though they stressed that most had been cleared of valuables by their owners.
Mrs Robinson died on January 17, and her funeral was held yesterday (Wednesday) at Golders Green Crematorium.
Cllr Martin Davies, chief of Adult Social Care in the ruling Lib Dem-Conservative council executive, said last night that a review would fully investigate the circumstances of the case and check procedures to see where lessons can be learnt.
He said that he would not tolerate the potential for abuse. “There are concerns and issues raised, particularly when people are vulnerable, that some people don’t consider abuse. But it is abuse, in my view – it’s definitely abuse and I want to make that message clear.
“It’s particularly acute knowing the vulnerability issues – knowing from my day job (as chief executive of Age Concern Westminster) that people can abuse the elderly in many situations. I’m not saying that this is what happened in this instance at all – but I want to make sure that everyone in the department is operating to the highest standards.
“It is the easiest thing to steal from an elderly person’s possessions, and the easiest thing is cash. But in some circumstances the things in a dead person’s house are effectively cash.”
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