Two unmarried brothers, with no children to take over the farm they loved, have been conned into signing over their property by a church minister and local businessman.
The three McCulloch brothers, Hugh, Roderick and David, were elderly and relatives say they were not in “the right state of mind” to sign anything. One brother had dementia and the other two were later diagnosed.
The brothers’ second cousin, Helen Fraser, said her cousins had been “groomed” into signing over power of attorney by Reverend Ivan Warwick and businessman Douglas Stewart in 2013.
They had lived on the farm for 30 years, raising cattle and sheep, but in August 2017, Ms Fraser said she found Hugh and Roddy distressed and their farmhouse stripped bare. The brothers said then that they no longer owned it.
Warwick and Stewart then sold the property, Logie Farm near Muir of Ord on the Black Isle, and withdrew all funds from the bank accounts of their vulnerable victims. The proceeds amounted to over one million pounds.
In 2017, a police investigation into the McCulloch case concluded that no crime had taken place because Warwick and Stewart had been given legal permission to act on behalf of the brothers.
In 2021, a civil court case was brought by their relatives which found that the two men had exerted “undue influence” over the brothers. After a legal battle taking over seven years, police have said they are now reviewing evidence.
The McCulloch brothers have all now died, but Warwick and Stewart were ordered to repay more than £1m taken from the McCullochs, to their surviving family, which is yet to receive any money.
Reverend Ivan Warwick was a well known Church of Scotland minister who preached to King Charles. He is no longer a minister.
The case has led for safeguards around the use of power of attorney. Power of attorney is designed to allow trusted people to manage the money and personal needs of another person, should they become incapable of dealing with such matters themselves.
After the court decision, the NHS, police and social services reviewed their handling of the McCulloch case. A report by Highland Adult Support and Protection Committee 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.
“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.”