A former funeral director has been imprisoned for 20 years for multiple counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, after remains were found in his Hull funeral premises in 2024.
Robert Bush, 48, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, was found guilty of 67 charges, including 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial of a body and counts of fraud, fraudulent trading and theft.
Sentencing Bush on Friday at Hull Crown Court (pictured), Mr Justice Hilliard said he had been “so preoccupied with his own enrichment that he behaved in a shocking and disgraceful way towards the deceased entrusted to his care, and his behaviour towards their living relatives was characterised by dishonesty, deception and heartlessness”.
The consequence, the judge said, was “that unless a body was one of those actually recovered by the police from Legacy in 2024 and thus properly identified, no one who had a cremation with Legacy at any time can actually know for certain whether they received the ashes of their loved one”.
Bush had taken “any and every opportunity in the course of his work dishonestly to enrich himself at the expense of those who used his services” while operating the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, which the judge noted was found “in an appalling state”.
Bush had offended on “an industrial scale”, he said, causing “anguish and pain on a scale beyond comprehension”.
It was clear Bush had “benefited very substantially from his fraudulent conduct”, he added, including “the dishonest sale” of funeral plans to 226 people who paid £562,117 on the understanding that the money would be held either with Legacy itself or by a third-party insurer.
Although regulations require client money to be held securely in a separate account, none of the funeral plans was transferred to a third-party insurer, and Bush transferred monies from the pre-paid plans into the personal accounts of himself and his wife.
Twelve charities which should have received donations collected at the end of funeral services never received the money, which was at least £5540 “and very possibly more than that”.
“It is worthy of note that in the same period he was stealing charity money from collection plates, just over £3 million was received by Legacy and the defendant’s personal accounts between March 2017 and April 2024”, the judge said. In the same period, £369,000 was transferred to the account of Bush’s wife which he said was paid to her “for tax reasons”.
The judge noted policies in the Birth and Registration Act 1953 “do not appear to have been followed”.
“How did he get away with it?” he asked. “As far as I can see, there were no checks over many years of the way in which he conducted his business. There was no oversight at all, for example, of the conditions in which the deceased were kept in his premises. A single visit might have been enough to bring some of what he was doing to a halt. Or even the prospect of a single visit might have meant that some of what he was doing never started in the first place.
“The proper procedures under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 do not, on the information I have been provided with, appear to have been followed. Once the Registrar issues a certificate for burial or cremation when a relative reports a death, one part of it should be returned to the Registrar confirming when and where burial or cremation took place. That part should be completed by the person responsible for the burial or cremation.
“I was told that the Registrar should check for outstanding returns but that in all cases here, the relevant parts of the forms were never returned to the Registrar. When there is a non-return, the Registrar should contact the General Register Office. That did not happen in this case. I was told by Hull City Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council that in their view it is not clear whether this would have changed the outcome of this case.”
The offences came to light in March 2024, when police received a report of concern for care of the deceased. When they attended the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors premises on Hessle Road in Hull they found and recovered bodies which had purportedly had funerals and been cremated.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had reviewed “an extensive amount” of evidence, including material recovered from the scene, financial records, victim statements and CCTV footage.
Laura Tams, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “These crimes represent some of the most serious breaches of trust possible in the funeral industry.
“The impact on the families and wider community has been profound. At their most vulnerable time, when seeking dignity and closure for their loved ones, these families were subjected to appalling violations of trust.”
She added: “I want to take this opportunity to share my deepest condolences to all those who have been affected. Learning that their relatives’ remains had not received proper care, and that some received the wrong ashes, has caused immeasurable additional grief and trauma… While nothing can undo the harm caused to these families, we hope today’s sentence represents an important step in justice for all those who have suffered from these deplorable actions.”
Senior investigating officer for Humberside Police, Detective Superintendent Alan Curtis, said: “From the moment this investigation began, our focus has been on the families left heartbroken by what happened at Legacy Funeral Directors.
“Behind every enquiry, every statement and every piece of evidence, were people who had lost a loved one and placed their trust in a funeral director to care for them with dignity.
“The distress that this investigation has caused for those families is simply unimaginable, and even after working on this case rigorously over the last couple of years, the sheer impact this has had on our whole community, and further afield, remains incomprehensible.”
When police attended the premises it became clear that there were two different sides to the business, Curtis said. “On the one hand Bush’s business which was open to the public presented under the façade of being organised and well presented, then delving behind the scenes depicted one of complete disarray.
“This mess only continued to multiply, translating into his finances, accounts, and overall record keeping.
“Robert Bush was a one-man band, the one centrally in control of Legacy. He controlled the finances, the care of the deceased, and the cremations. He was heavily in debt, a poor businessman, and treated the deceased in a way that revealed his questionable moral and ethical compass.
“He exploited people during some of the most difficult times in their lives, taking money for services that were not delivered and failing families at a time they needed him most.”
The investigation was the largest ever undertaken by Humberside Police and involved multiple agencies including Hull City Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, the Coroner, the Crown Prosecution Service, Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner, bereavement services, the National Crime Agency, along with specialist resources and forensic accounts and Victim Support. Over 300 victims were identified, but many more are believed to have been affected.
Humberside Police assistant chief constable Andy Walker said: “This has been one of the largest and most complex investigations ever carried out by Humberside Police.
“Our focus for the last two years has been delivering justice for the devastated families who are at the heart of this case
“Robert Bush’s actions have had a profound effect on so many people; we have been determined to make sure that we kept them at the heart of everything we have done, every step of the way.
“We also know that the effects of this case will be far-reaching and will have an impact in our local communities and beyond for a very long time.
“I offer my sincere thanks to everybody involved; families – for their patience and understanding as we progressed the case, Humberside Police officers and staff for their dedication and determination to ensure Robert Bush was held to account, and our partners here in Hull and the East Riding who have been crucial in providing support and care to those involved.”
