Bodies had been at the site “for years” A funeral director who hoarded bodies for months and gave bereaved families the wrong ashes has been jailed for 20 years. Robert Bush breached the trust of his customers at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors for 12 years, “on an almost industrial scale”, from mixing up ashes to fleecing vulnerable pensioners with fake funeral plans. On Friday, he was told by a judge that the 20-year prison term could not “put right the harm the defendant has done”. Mr Justice Hilliard said: “Unless a body was one of those actually recovered by the police in 2024, and was properly identified, no-one who had a cremation at Legacy at any time can actually know for certain whether they received the right ashes for their loved one, whether or not their case features on the indictment.” The judge continued: Bush was “so pre-occupied 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 court heard about the “dreadful” condition of Legacy’s Hessle Road premises in Hull. “If he could re-use a coffin someone had already paid for, he would do so… If it was cheaper to keep someone in non-refrigerated conditions, he would do that too", said the judge. Over four days, Bush, 48, looked emotionless in the dock as statements from more than 200 victims were read in court, with many who chose to read them in person breaking down in tears. One woman who was given the wrong ashes for her husband told the defendant he had fooled people in Hull with his mild manner, when in fact he was a “cruel conman who used people’s grief to fund his lifestyle”. The court heard Bush’s offending came to light in March 2024 when he was on holiday with his daughter in Arizona and asked two directors of another funeral firm to help with a body recovery while he was away. A casual worker at Legacy told the two men “out of the blue” that bodies had been at the site “for years”. Police were called and searched the site, uncovering a “shocking” scene where decomposing bodies had been left on the racks of a cold storage area. The court heard the rest of the site was in a “lamentable state”, with ashes kept in mouldy boxes and even strewn across the floor, photographs left out of coffins and jewellery not returned to families. The investigation found that 31 bodies, including that of unborn baby Sunny Beverley-Conlin, should have been cremated months earlier, and most of their families had already been given ashes. Officers were able to identify another 57 families who had either been given the wrong ashes or no ashes, but the court heard there was also a large quantity of unlabelled ashes at the site, and no-one who used Legacy during that time could ever know for sure if they had the right ones. In one police interview, Bush said he had developed a cash flow problem because “people did not always pay” and had debts of around £90,000. Over almost 12 years he sold plans to 226 people but kept the money, pocketing more than half a million pounds in the process. Bush also stole money from 12 charities by not passing on donations collected at his funeral services. He pleaded guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial and 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies found at the site, and four “foetus allegations” of fraud. He also pleaded guilty to a further charge of fraud covering the ashes of 57 people, fraudulent trading relating to funeral plans and theft from 12 charities. - @c5news