Funeral director to enter pleas to 63 charges after remains found at premises

A funeral director is due to enter pleas to 63 charges spanning more than 10 years after a major investigation into human remains found at his premises.

Robert Bush, 47, faces 30 counts of preventing a lawful burial and 30 counts of fraud by false representation over bodies found at one of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors’ sites in Hull.

He is also charged with one count of fraud by false representation in relation to human ashes between August 2017 and March 2024, and one count of fraudulent trading in relation to funeral plans between May 2012 and March 2024.

Police carried out investigations at the Beckside branch of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull / Credit: Danny Lawson/PA

Bush is also accused of theft from 12 charities including the Salvation Army, Macmillan Cancer Support, Help for Heroes and the RNLI.

The defendant, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, but now of Otley, West Yorkshire, is due to appear at Hull Crown Court for a plea hearing on Wednesday.

Humberside Police launched a probe 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 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.