Funeral director admits string of fees after giving out ‘pretend ashes’
Need to know
Robert Bush admitted 30 counts of preventing lawful burial, theft from 12 charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, and fraud charges including giving fake ashes to grieving mothers.
Robert Bush’s business – Legacy Independent Funeral Directors – has been at the centre of a
Need to know: Funeral director admits preventing decent burial of 30 bodies in shocking scandal
- Former funeral director Robert Bush, 48, has admitted to shocking charges after police found 35 bodies and over 100 sets of ashes at his Hull business.
- Bush pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to 30 counts of preventing lawful and decent burial, with one body having been stored for a year. He also admitted theft from 12 charities including the Salvation Army and Macmillan Cancer Support.
- The disgraced funeral director confessed to fraud charges involving 57 people’s ashes between 2017 and 2024. He even gave fake ashes to grieving mothers, falsely claiming they were “the remains of their unborn”.
- Devastated families have branded Bush “a monster” who “put us all through hell for his own selfishness”. Karen Dry, who organised monthly vigils for victims, said she’ll never know if the ashes she received were actually her parents.
- “I’ve had people ringing me saying, ‘I had a tattoo done for my grandma, from her ashes’, and it turns out that the ashes that she’s now got tattooed are not her grandma’s,” Mrs Dry revealed. She described Bush as “disgusting” and “a despicable human being”.
- Humberside Police launched their investigation in March 2024 after receiving a report of “concern for care of the deceased”.
- READ THE FULL STORY: Ex-funeral director pleads guilty after 35 bodies found at his premises in grim probe
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