Lena Lindberg, in the small Swedish town of Skara, had a trustee, who was supposed to take care of her finances, for over ten years. It was an older woman, with a church mission, who had been given the confidence.
During the first years with the trustee, Lena was in a relationship, and everything worked fine. But when Lena left her husband the problems began.
– The trustee did not like that I separated, so she refused to help me when I asked her, says Lena.
Lacking money for food
Lena stayed in a temporary, emergency apartment and barely had money for food.
– I could not get any money from my accounts. When I called her, I couldn't get hold of her, she was traveling, says Lena.
– Lena had nowhere to live, she was not welcome back to her home and she wasn’t allowed to see her child, says Marianne Wallgren, director of housing support in Skara.
Marianne is still upset that it was possible for the trustee to take money from Lena’s accounts for years, without anyone reacting. Lena herself ended up in poverty.
– Life is very limited, when you do not have money. To only get the bare essentials and nothing more. Lena was very sad at this time. She did worse and worse, Marianne recalls.
Social services helped
Social services helped Lena to get her own apartment. But she still lacked money. And she didn’t have anything in her new home; neither food, nor furniture.
Lena understood that something was wrong and asked the trustee where her money went, but got no answer.
– She just snapped at me, says Lena. So I did not dare to speak up. I didn’t want her to be angry at me.
Tried to sound the alarm
Lena tried to sound the alarm again and again, but with no result. No one would listen to her. The change only came after several years, when the trustee persuaded her to take a loan with a high interest rate. Lena showed the documents to Marianne Wallgren.
– Then we realised that something was very wrong. It was a loan with 39 percent in interest, and I called the trustee and questioned it. Then we tore the documents and began examining Lena's finances, Marianne says
They discovered that Lena’s money had been transferred to the trustee's own account. And that Lena’s whole heritage from her father, SEK 60,000 was gone.