UK funeral director Robert Bush jailed for 20 years for hoarding bodies, giving wrong ashes, and stealing charity donations

On Friday, Robert Bush, 48, was sentenced to 20 years in prison at Hull Crown Court for a 12-year campaign of deception at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull. The case came to light in March 2024 when police found 35 bodies on the premises, many in advanced decomposition, and families learned they had been given the wrong ashes.

Discovery of the horror scene

In March 2024, while Bush was on holiday in Arizona with his daughter, he asked two directors of another funeral firm to help with a body recovery. A casual worker at Legacy told them, out of the blue, that bodies had been at the site for years. Police were called and found 35 bodies, only four of which should have been there. Some had supposedly had funerals and been cremated. One naked body lay on a stretcher; a stillborn baby, Sunny, was found in a brown paper bag, despite his parents having been given ashes two years earlier. Mark Hotham, 87, was the last to be identified, having lain in a body bag for over six months, still wearing his emergency fall pendant.

It was a horror scene.

Scale of the deception

Bush admitted 67 offences, including 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, fraud by false representation, and theft from 12 charities. He gave families ashes that were not their relatives', including presenting fake ashes to women who had miscarried. A further fraud charge covered the ashes of 57 people between 2017 and 2024. He also sold fraudulent funeral plans from 2012 to 2024, taking money without making arrangements. Humberside Police chief inspector Alan Curtis said the investigation involved 3,000 exhibits, 12,000 documents, and 800 witness statements, with more than 300 victims identified.

The company presented itself as organised and well-kept, but behind the scenes it was complete chaos.

Financial greed and personal spending

The court heard that Bush was motivated by financial greed. While defrauding families, he spent over £42,000 on holidays to Center Parcs and Arizona, £9,000 on camping, and nearly £7,000 on motorcycle racing. He reused coffins and kept bodies in non-refrigerated conditions to save money. Judge Nicholas Hilliard noted Bush had a heartless side and that his premises were dreadful.

Victims' anguish

Over four days, more than 200 victim statements were read in court. Nigel Hotham, whose uncle Mark was found after six months, said: "Bless him, he wasn't changed at all and had been left in the clothes he had died in. They had left his emergency fall assistance pendant around his neck. He was just left in a body bag for six months." Jasmine Beverley and her partner Ben were handed ashes in an envelope in March 2023 for their stillborn son Sunny, only to learn his remains were in a paper bag at the funeral home.

I despise him, I don't forgive him and I never, ever will.

Sentencing

Judge Hilliard said Bush had caused anguish and pain on a scale beyond comprehension and that no sentence can put right the harm the defendant has done. He added that even families not directly involved in the case could not be certain they had received the correct ashes, and that what the dead lacked in dignity at Bush's hands was more than made up for by the dignity with which the relatives conducted themselves. Bush's lawyer, Richard Wright KC, said his client offered an apology without qualification, but the judge emphasised the heartless nature of the crimes. Bush was jailed for 20 years.

I don't think that I have ever known offences affect so many people and so many people so deeply.