Church Elders accused of theft - what IS the world coming to?

[hopeforhappiness]

First I need to say that they only have been accused. In one situation, there was no case to answer, but it took 4 months of worry before the police decided they could just tell the guy that there was no evidence. A social worker had encouraged a very vulnerable old lady to say that he had stolen her pension. This after him, as a trained accountant, looking after her (on behalf of his church) for 20 years. One encounter with this social worker seemed to show that she was antagonistic to Christians and wanted them out of any social work she was involved in. The quality of life of this older lady is now much more constrained, having to rely on unsympathetic family members. In fact the church has now decided not to do social work in the community at all.
In the second case a retired elder just forgot to out an item onto the supermarket check-out and was aggressively stopped on the pavement outside the shop. He has now been banned from the chain. The worst thing is, he now feels he has No Witness anywhere.
So both cases are closed, but what about the personal and church damage? Should restitution be sought?

 

[grasping the after wind]

First I need to say that they only have been accused. In one situation, there was no case to answer, but it took 4 months of worry before the police decided they could just tell the guy that there was no evidence. A social worker had encouraged a very vulnerable old lady to say that he had stolen her pension. This after him, as a trained accountant, looking after her (on behalf of his church) for 20 years. One encounter with this social worker seemed to show that she was antagonistic to Christians and wanted them out of any social work she was involved in. The quality of life of this older lady is now much more constrained, having to rely on unsympathetic family members. In fact the church has now decided not to do social work in the community at all.
In the second case a retired elder just forgot to out an item onto the supermarket check-out and was aggressively stopped on the pavement outside the shop. He has now been banned from the chain. The worst thing is, he now feels he has No Witness anywhere.
So both cases are closed, but what about the personal and church damage? Should restitution be sought?

After reading your post, I have no idea what happened.
Did a church Elder steal something? Was there only a false allegation against a church Elder? You mention cases, are there multiple accusations?multiple thefts? multiple church elders either stealing or being falsely accused of doing so? I'm sorry but your post was confusing to me.

 

[hopeforhappiness]

Hi there, no, he stole nothing. The old lady herself phoned and said she never made the accusation and was actually upset that her old friends from church were no longer visiting. It was something the social worker fabricated on her behalf. But all complaints like this have to be investigated. (vulnerable adult and all that)
That's the first case, the second case was just forgetfulness. Yes, false accusations in both cases.

 

[grasping the after wind]

Thanks for the clarification