Funeral director admits 35 fraud charges over remains including four foetuses

A former funeral director has pleaded guilty to more than 30 fraud charges relating to human remains, including those of four unborn babies.

Robert Bush admitted 35 counts of false representation and one of fraudulent trading in relation to funeral plans during a hearing at Hull Crown Court on Wednesday.

But the 47-year-old pleaded not guilty to 30 counts of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body, and one count of theft from 12 charities.

He is due to go on trial for those offences at Sheffield Crown Court in October next year.

Most of the fraud by false representation charges said that he dishonestly made false representations to bereaved families saying he would: properly care for the remains of the deceased in accordance with the normal expected practices of a competent funeral director; arrange for the cremation of those remains to take place immediately or soon after the conclusion of the funeral service; and that the ashes presented to the customer were the remains of the deceased person after cremation.

He admitted four “foetus allegations” which stated he presented ashes to a customer falsely saying that they were “the remains of their unborn”.

Bush, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, but now of Otley, West Yorkshire, arrived at court wearing a black baseball cap and scarf covering his face, and left flanked by at least 10 police officers.

He wore a grey three-piece suit with a white shirt and mauve tie for the half-hour hearing.

Judge John Thackray KC, the Recorder of Hull, granted Bush conditional bail until the trial, which is expected to take eight weeks.

Humberside Police launched an investigation into the funeral home after a report of “concern for care of the deceased” in March last year.

A month after the investigation started, the force said it had received more than 2,000 calls on a dedicated phone line from families concerned about their loved ones’ ashes.

Bush, who is on bail, was charged in April, after what officers said was a “complex, protracted and highly sensitive 10-month investigation” into the firm’s three sites in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.