Police stretched to catch financial abuse
As police budgets are spread thin across the country, education is being looked at as the best weapon in the fight to prevent elder financial abuse.
"We're right up against it. Resources will never keep up with the need," said Det. Rick Anthony, fraud investigator with Victoria police. "All we can do is combat it with knowledge and get the word out there."
Anthony, one of only two fraud investigators in the Victoria department - he estimates there may be only a dozen of them between RCMP and municipal detachments on the Island - said while police forces deem fraud and elder financial abuse to be as important as robbery and physical crimes, it just doesn't get the manpower.