Predatory marriages are the new danger in countries with aging populations
In 2016, Englishwoman Daphne Franks and her brother Michael Blass were surprised to discover that their 91-year-old mother had secretly married five months before she died of cancer. They learn this when they ask her GP for a death certificate so they can bury her, but he refuses on the grounds that she has a living husband.
They are both puzzled and think it is a mistake, as their father died many years ago. But after checking the marriage records, they found that their mother, Joan Blass, had recently married a man 23 years her junior.
This is Coleman Folan. The two met in 2011, when Joan was diagnosed with severe dementia and moved to a small house at the end of Daphne’s garden so that her daughter could take care of her. One day, while doing something in the garden, Coleman walks by. The two talk. After a few days, he arrives again to communicate. Later, she invites him to the house for tea.
Daphne notices this nascent new friendship, but decides it’s good for her mother to keep her company while she’s at work. Gradually, Coleman moves in with Joan and offers to take care of her. The mother seems happy in his company, although she never remembers his name and periodically asks if this is her caregiver that her daughter has found for her.
When her condition worsens, Coleman begins to keep her daughter out of the house they live in. “Even though I had a key for her, he always left the other one in the lock on the inside so I couldn’t get in. He said that his mother was asleep or that she was getting ready to go to bed, “the 64-year-old daughter recalled to The Sun. His behavior begins to bother her, but she calms down that she has a power of attorney from her mother to manage all her property and finances. It also does not allow anyone to allow the marriage of a woman who does not know the name of the man she will marry and her own address.
Later, however, he realizes that this is entirely possible if two witnesses are provided and the bride looks happy. “They just went one day with his son and a man he knew from the pub and got married,” says Daphne Franks.
She and her brother are trying to challenge this marriage, which overturns their mother’s earlier will and deprives them of much of her inheritance. They have been suing for years, but to no avail. They can’t even carry out their mother’s will to be cremated because Coleman buries her in an unmarked grave. “It was absolutely devastating for us. We could not enter her house, where she lived and where my wedding dress and letters from my grandfather from the time of the Second World War are, ”the daughter explains.
The British prosecutor’s office says that they made an investigation, but did not find enough evidence to demand the dissolution of the marriage and a possible conviction of Coleman. In his sparing comments on the case, he himself claims that he had a loving relationship with Joan and quite naturally it grew into a marriage. None of her relatives had informed him that she was unable to make her own decisions about her life.
To sever all ties with Coleman, his brother and sister sold their share of the mother’s house, valued at 175,000 pounds. In this way, they managed to pay part of the 200 thousand pounds in court costs in the case against him, which they lost.
Daphne Franks is launching a campaign to change English marriage law so that vulnerable older people like her mother can be protected from abuse. Through an MP from her constituency, she once managed to provoke a parliamentary debate on the issue in 2018. Legislative changes have been made, which stipulate that the marriage union does not automatically revoke the wills of its members, but they have not been finally adopted. That is why Daphne is now again seeking support for their return for discussion in plenary, especially since there are plans for the pandemic to allow couples to marry in a place of their choice, not just in churches and ritual halls. “On the one hand, it’s fantastic to make marriage easier, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of those who are vulnerable and not protected from abuse,” Rachel Clawson, who conducts research on predatory marriages, told the Daily Mail. at the University of Nottingham.
There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with an average age of around 81 years. So there are conditions for this problem to deepen. And not just in the UK, but in all countries with an aging population where caring for pensioners is becoming a difficult problem to solve. People live longer than ever, but at an increased risk of losing the ability to make sober judgments as a result of mental and physical conditions associated with aging. Especially if they are lonely, they can become easy prey for “benefactors” who have cast an eye on their condition.
Canada was among the first countries to acknowledge the existence of such a problem and define it as a predatory marriage. There are already several court decisions in the country to annul such family unions. A 50-year-old man, who received serious head injuries in an accident that made him disabled, suddenly secretly married. The bride never lives with him, but it takes 6 years for this to be proven and for their marriage to be declared null and void. She is his ex-girlfriend and called him 3 days after he was discharged from the hospital after 4 months of treatment. She was attracted by information that he could receive nearly a million dollars in medical insurance because of the accident.
In another case, an elderly Canadian woman contracted Alzheimer’s disease but hid from her loved ones to maintain her independence. She meets a much younger man in a mall, who starts courting her, and after 3 years he takes her to a lawyer to change his will. However, the lawyer refuses to do so because he doubts her ability to judge. Thus, the following year, the two were already married, although the woman always denied to her relatives that she had such intentions.
Her children are fighting a lawsuit against this marriage, which deprives them of an inheritance. During the trial, it became clear that the alleged dungeon was campaigning hard to get his elderly sick wife’s money, and she was unable to figure out exactly what was going on. Therefore, their marriage was declared null and void.
How to recognize that a fraud is being prepared
Predatory marriages are on the rise around the world, but their hallmarks are becoming more recognizable, according to Canadian law firm Rogerson Law Group, which specializes in family matters.
Her lawyers have also produced a handbook on how to recognize such vicious marriages.
According to them, among the most common factors is a large age difference between spouses, one of them is seriously vulnerable, for example, recently lost a longtime partner, experienced a serious illness or fell into a condition that limits his lifestyle. He suffers from dementia, which prevents him from making sober judgments about his life. He has become completely dependent on his caregiver, who also recognizes him as his life partner and suddenly ends his relationship with his family.
Generally speaking, there is inequality in bargaining, with one spouse taking advantage of the other’s vulnerability. And although the phenomenon is more often associated with the financial exploitation of adults, often by a caregiver, family friend or neighbor, vulnerable people of all ages are at risk, say Canadian lawyers.
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