Crooked funeral director Robert Bush spent more than £42,000 on holidays while he was defrauding scores of customers, a court has heard.
Bush, 48, is to be sentenced for 67 offences spanning 12 years and affecting hundreds of victims at his business, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.
A court has heard how he breached the trust placed in him by grieving families “on an almost industrial scale”, by keeping bodies for months after they should have been cremated, giving out the wrong ashes, taking money for funeral plans without making any of the arrangements, and stealing charity donations collected at services.
On the third day of his sentencing on Wednesday, the court was told about some of Bush’s personal spending.
This included spending £9,000 on camping and almost £7,000 on motorcycle racing in the year he told a grieving mother her unborn baby had been cremated, while leaving it on the floor of his funeral home in a paper bag.
Financial records submitted to the court showed that between 2017 and 2024, when he was arrested, Bush spent more than £42,000 on holidays, £21,000 on motorcycle racing and £17,400 on home improvements.
Throughout that time, the court has heard, he was defrauding customers by taking money for funeral plans he was not authorised to set up, and giving families the wrong ashes for their loved ones.
The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, asked for a detailed breakdown of Bush’s spending, saying: “I think people who have lost their money will want to know what it went on.”
Prosecutors said his holiday spending over the seven years included £6,400 on three trips to Center Parcs, £3,800 on a trip to Italy, and £3,000 on the holiday he was taking with his daughter in Arizona when the horrors at the funeral home were discovered.
Records showed that in 2022, the year he failed to cremate Jasmine Beverley’s baby Sunny Beverley-Conlin, he spent more than £9,000 on camping expenses.
Prosecutors also highlighted almost £10,000 of retail spending, including £1,000 in Boodles jewellers, and £3,385 on restaurants, including £250 for a meal at fashionable Covent Garden restaurant Clos Maggiore.
Prosecutor Steven Ball said that between March 17 2017 and April 8 2024, almost £1.49 million was transferred into Bush’s personal bank account from Legacy business accounts.
Mr Ball said that in that time the total received in Legacy and Bush’s accounts was more than £3 million, but the turnover reported to Companies House and HM Revenue and Customs did not reflect this.
Earlier in the day the court heard that Bush stole money from 12 charities by not passing on donations collected at his funeral services, including the Salvation Army, Macmillan Cancer Support, Help for Heroes, the RNLI and some local groups.
Mary Jane Roberts collected between £300 and £600 for Macmillan at the funeral of her mother Lynne Wheal, who died from cancer in 2022.
The court heard that Bush told her: “We’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”
Ms Roberts remembered thinking “how nice he was for giving them one less thing to worry about”, but Macmillan never received the donation.
When police raided Legacy, they found an empty envelope labelled “Donations in memory of Matthew Craig. Thank you”.
The court heard that Mr Craig died in September 2023, and the envelope should have contained donations for Dove House Hospice, collected by his mother Jayne Waudby.
A judge has heard heard that Bush kept 31 bodies, including an unborn baby in a paper bag, at his Hull funeral home while telling their families they had been cremated and giving them the ashes of a stranger.
He also sold false funeral plans worth more than £500,000 in total, covering more than 200 people, prosecutors have said.
In emotional scenes over two days earlier this week, more than 80 people either faced Bush to tell the stories of how he devastated their lives, or had their statements read in court by prosecutors.
Many broke down in tears as they described Bush’s “callous” disregard for relatives they had entrusted to him.
Bush sat in the glass-fronted dock, wearing a dark suit as he listened to the prosecution case against him continue on Wednesday morning.
Mr Ball told the court: “Every person in a civilised society is entitled to dignity in death.
“Funeral directors are expected to conduct themselves with professionalism and compassion. Not to do so represents an egregious breach of trust.
“They play and provide a unique service and role in society. That role comes into play when families have suffered a loss and bereavement.
“Mr Bush falsely claimed he carried out funeral services and cremations for loved ones, when no such cremations had taken place.
“By not cremating those bodies and representing to families and friends that the ashes presented were those of their loved ones when they were not, represents an egregious breach of trust.”
Police were called to Legacy’s Hessle Road premises in March 2024 after concerns were raised, and officers found 35 bodies and more than 100 sets of ashes.
In April, Bush pleaded guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and theft from the 12 charities.
He had already admitted 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies found at the site, and four “foetus allegations” of fraud, where he presented ashes to women falsely saying that they were “the remains of their unborn”.
Bush also pleaded guilty to a further charge of fraud, covering the ashes of 57 people between 2017 and 2024, and one of fraudulent trading relating to funeral plans between 2012 and 2024.
