Two directors of Safe Hands Funeral Plans have appeared in court after proceedings were launched by the Serious Fraud Office for their roles in the collapse of the firm. Richard Wells and Neil Debenham both appeared at a preliminary hearing at Westminster Magistrates court accused of suspected fraud on Thursday 5th February.
Safe Hands collapsed in 2022 leaving 46,000 plan holders owed an estimated £70.6 million. The SFO announced in January of this year it would bring proceedings against two directors for conspiracy to defraud after an investigation.
At the procedural hearing both Debenham and Wells spoke only to confirm their names, addresses and dates of birth, but heard the case against them as Leila Gaafar, counsel for the SFO, told the judge how the two men had intended to “enrich themselves” by acquiring the trust through a company controlled by Wells.
Gaafar explained:
“They did so by arranging for money from the trust to be sent to a fund in the Cayman Islands and then routed back to a company controlled by Wells, in order to purchase the company that owned the trust.”
They then set about replacing trustees and financial advisors in order to clear a path for them to take control of the money.
“Nobody who would have sought to buy a funeral plan would have done so had they known that the money was going to be used in this way,” concluded Gaafar.
The two are also accused of false representation having use bank statement from the business as proof of funds for a property transaction.
A pre-trial hearing will take place at Southwark crown court on 5th March 2026.
11 responses
My only hope is that all tje family’s cruely left without there funerals are compensated .we was fortunate to find out about my mums plan before she passed away .so sad peaple are only still finding out after loved ones passing that there planned funeral isnt there
They hurt so many families financially ,some have already passed and left their families wondering how they were going to pay for their funerals thinking like myself it would save our families having to worry about it .I paid £4,000 and got back £166.tottally ridiculous after being told it was in a ringed trust and could not be touched.
So many have been financially hurt, some people have already passed leaving families not able to pay for their funerals. We lost £6500 for 2 plans hoping it would save our families having to worry about it.
This is scandalous after being told it was in a ringed trust and could not be touched.
I am one of the people who bought a funeral plan through “Safe Hands”. They proved to be anything but. I can’t say what I would like to about these individuals purely because of the ongoing SFO case. They are despicable human beings and need to answer for what they have done. We’ll never get the full amount back. Whilst I realise that without the administrators we wouldn’t have got anything back, unfortunately millions of pounds of OUR money has gone to paying the administrators, monies that should have gone back to the people it was owed to.
They robbed me a single parent of £4500. They took the money knowing that they were stealing from us all
We have lost £7,500 on two funeral plans which has affected us big time, we constantly worry as we can’t afford another funeral plan. We thought we were doing the right thing for us and our family as we wanted everything in order but due to these people we’ve lost so much money.
I hope they get their comeuppance as they deserve to be punished.
I hope that they are found guilty of all counts and jailed for a long time. Also all their assets stripped to reduce our losses. They should be ashamed of their actions.
These Vile scum bags have robbed thousands of pounds from people,, including myself! Just hope the sentence is justified for all of us!! Shame on you both!!!!
My husband and I both bought funeral plans from this company. In circumstances like this I can’t understand why the money isn’t just paid back to the people who had purchased and any admin costs are funded separately. My husband died 4 weeks ago and I am funding his funeral at the moment. We were given £122 each back. Despicable that this could happen. Hopefully the trial will lead to their offshore account being taken from them and divided between the 46,000 people who were robbed.
My wife and I took out a full funeral plan mounting to the sum of just under £8,000. We did get a very small amount back hopefully fingers crossed we get a better amount back in the future. A big thank you to Jane for doing the hard work for all policy holders. Good luck 👍
Not the first fraud charge for one of them
https://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/21093108.norfolk-businessmen-made-millions-lies/
https://www.leasinglife.com/company-profiles/duo-convicted-in-uk-mega-fraud/?cf-view