A pattern of funeral directors sending families the wrong ashes is being driven in part by low-cost “direct cremations” with “Amazon-style” delivery of ashes, experts have warned.
Families and industry leaders have called for new laws to govern the unlicensed and unregulated sector after two cases in UK courts in three months in which funeral directors delivered ashes to families while still in possession of the bodies of their loved ones.
In the latest case, Robert Bush, 48, pleaded guilty at Hull crown court last week to the last of 67 charges relating to preventing the lawful burial of 30 people, defrauding 172 victims over prepaid funeral plans and stealing donations intended for a dozen charities.
His case has highlighted growing concerns over the absence of licensing and oversight for funeral directors, and is the latest in a string of cases in UK courts in which cremations were promised and paid for but not carried out.
Andrew Judd, chief executive of trade body the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD), said that a growing trend for cheaper “direct cremation” services such as those offered by Bush and others – in which the body is cremated without the family present and the ashes are delivered directly to their home – had been exploited.
“It’s become a disposal service… Amazon-style, where the ashes are delivered direct to the client's front door,” Judd said. He said that a lot of the services advertise themselves to customers as a way to handle their funeral themselves without burdening their loved ones financially. Direct cremation can cost in the region of £1,000, whereas a full crematorium service is likely to cost between about £3,500and £4,000.
Judd added: “It has detached the family, if you like, from witnessing that final act of disposal. Because we’re not good at talking about death, we don’t give it a lot of thought... for many people, they feel [direct cremation] is a selfless act and, actually, they’re doing the right thing for their family.”
He also said the NAFD is calling for a statutory legal framework, a duty to inform people of the date and location of all cremations and a commissioner for the dead, with oversight of the industry.
In February two funeral directors in Hampshire were jailed for four years each in a case involving 46 bodies they had kept in substandard storage. Some families were delivered the wrong ashes.
Another undertaker, Jack Weekes, was convicted in Cornwall in January after keeping the body of an 86-year-old woman for more than a month after he should have cremated her.
Newsletters
Choose the newsletters you want to receive
View more
For information about how The Observer protects your data, read our Privacy Policy
Karen Dry, whose parents were both cremated at Bush’s Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, stressed the lack of legislation as she called for action.
“There is an enduring sense of deep betrayal, emotional stress and damage caused by this individual, to many families right across this city,” she said. “I think everybody assumes that there’s laws to protect the deceased. And there isn’t. Not one. I find it shocking.”
There is currently no specific legislation or licensing for funeral directors in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. Bush, who ran three funeral parlours in Humberside, was facing soaring debts and had been mis-selling prepaid funeral plans since at least 2012. Ashes were delivered to family members who would later discover that the bodies of their loved ones had not been cremated and were still being stored at his funeral homes Bush will be sentenced at Hull crown court on 27 July.
Photograph by Alamy