Albert Gyamfi, a private legal practitioner, has defined the act of family members taking money from a deceased’s bank account to organize their burial as a criminal offense punishable by law.
According to the lawyer, while this is a normal practice in the Ghanaian sociocultural setting, the conduct is defined by law as interfering with the deceased’s property, which is a serious offense.
Mr Gyamfi also stated to The Law’s host, Samson Lardy Anyenini, that when a person is pronounced dead, his bank account is automatically closed.
As a result, no relative may access the deceased’s bank account until a letter of administration (LA) or probate is awarded to them, he explained.
“Let me sound this warning, the general practice has been that when a person dies, people would want to go into his bank account for money for the organization of the funeral. That is intermeddling. Wherever the family will find a room to organize the funeral, they should do so. And when probate has been granted, then if there’s any property to liquidate that debt, they use his property to do so.”
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“But you cannot go into his bank account, withdraw money for purpose of a funeral. As soon as the person dies, doctors declare him dead, his bank account is closed until probate has been granted,” Mr Gyamfi cautioned while contributing to a discussion on The Law on Sunday.
After that, he stated that in a circumstance where an individual accumulates the assets of a deceased person to safeguard the assets but does not deprive the entitled individuals of the use of the property, such an act was not classified as interfering with the deceased person’s property.
“If you look at section 17, the law principally says, unlawfully deprive the entitled persons of the use. So, the law has a mens rea of you unlawfully depriving persons of the use. So, if I am only gathering them for safekeeping, I am not depriving people of the use,” Mr Gyamfi emphasised.
As a result, referring to a situation in which the deceased person was the owner of a business vehicle, the lawyer suggested that a driver in such a circumstance preserves the sales received secure until appropriate administrators are chosen to whom the driver may account for the money received.
He did, however, warn that the alleged driver’s failure to account for the money is considered intermeddling.
So, the lawyer stated that, “If you are unable to account and some monies are gone somewhere, then you can be said to have been depriving the beneficiaries of the use, and you will be guilty of intermeddling.
“So gathering properties in good faith for purposes of administration in mind does not amount to intermeddling,” Mr Gyamfi reiterated.
SOURCE: myjoyonline
