Costa also gave evidence of cases of theft and fraud against the authorities' highly vulnerable clients. Many cases involve people who have received substantial damages after being terribly injured in accidents, and have had their affairs surrendered to the OPC by well-meaning relatives, who later find the money has been squandered by excessive legal costs, high fees, bad investment decisions, and poor tax planning. The most extraordinary case to come to light so far involves the former movie star Jon Blake, who became brain damaged and quadriplegic after a road accident in 1986. One financial expert who will give evidence next week is Greg Pride, principal consultant at financial planners the Berkley Group. This is, of course, an area of high emotion and conflict.
Families are often divided over how best to care for elderly and incompetent relatives.
The man newly appointed as acting head of the guardianship bureaucracy is Ken Gabb, a former Unsworth Government minister. He has yet to give evidence, and his office said no submission had been prepared which could be used in this story to balance the picture. However, Gabb has written to the committee, not to rebut any of the testimony, but to ask that in its proceedings it protect the privacy of people subject to guardianship orders, quoting a Supreme Court judgment to support his appeal. For George Capsis and several hundred other angry victims of the system, that cannot happen too soon.