Bereaved families whose relatives were left to rot at a funeral home of horrors gasped as they heard how animal remains were among one baby’s ashes given back to a grieving mother.
Robert Bush, 48, is being sentenced for 67 offences spanning 12 years and affecting hundreds of victims at his business, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.
Prosecutors told Hull Crown Court today he should be jailed for between 20 and 25 years for the ‘evil’ crimes.
Bush kept bodies for months after they should have been cremated, gave out the wrong ashes, took money for funeral plans without making any of the arrangements, and pocketed charity donations collected at services.
Carl Skinn, an advanced cremation technician, gave evidence today in relation to the remains of four unborn babies whose ashes were returned to their families by Bush.
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There were gasps from the public gallery, where some people also sat in tears, as the expert told the court one set of remains contained the ‘ashes of an adult’.
Cries could be heard more clearly when he said the texture of another resembled ‘animal remains’.
In a report, forensic scientist and former funeral director Dr Richard Lloyd found that the site in Hessle Road, Hull, was ‘in a lamentable state’ with ‘a wholly inadequate approach to care for the deceased’ at the mortuary.
Clothing likely handed in for dressing the deceased was left piled up and a large number of photographs intended to be placed in their coffin with them were similarly discarded.
Jewellery which should have been returned to families was also found, some described as unbagged and effectively untraceable.
A report compiled by forensic scientist and former funeral director Dr Richard Lloyd found that the site in Hessle Road, Hull, was ‘in a lamentable state’ with ‘a wholly inadequate approach to care for the deceased’ at the mortuary.
The report said containers of ashes were found all over the premises, with most ‘stored in an undignified manner’, often stacked chaotically on shelves or on the floor where damp had caused mould to grow on the boxes.
In some instances, ash was found on desk surfaces, in empty and unidentified boxes and, in one room, strewn across the floor, the court heard.
The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, demanded to know why existing regulations around dead bodies appear not to have been followed.
Prosecutors explained how forms used to monitor the process of burial or cremation were not returned by Bush and ‘this was not followed up by the assigned registrar’.
The judge said: ‘Why didn’t they? What’s the explanation?’
Facing many of the victims of Bush in public gallery, he said: ‘There’s public interest in this. I can see people here nodding. They want to know what’s happened.’
The judge asked what would have happened if the authorities had followed up just one of Bush’s failures to return the so-called Part C form.
He said: ‘They go round and there are a number of uncremated bodies, all this comes to a stop?’
Mr Justice Hilliard told Steven Ball, prosecuting, that he had heard at several points during the sentencing hearing how there is no national regulation of the funeral industry, and there are campaigns ongoing for the government to act on this.
But he said the evidence he heard on Wednesday was that there was a system in place.
He asked whether the problem was whether there was no regulation or ‘there is a system of regulation and it wasn’t followed’.
The judge said: ‘Everyone will want to know which it is.’
When Mr Ball said he did not have an answer to that at the moment, the senior judge replied: ‘There better be a straight answer before we are finished.’
Earlier, the court heard where some of the money paid to Legacy went.
Financial records submitted to the court showed that between 2017 and 2024, when he was arrested, Bush spent more than £42,000 on holidays, £21,000 on motorcycle racing and £17,400 on home improvements.
Throughout that time, the court has heard, he was defrauding customers by taking money for funeral plans he was not authorised to set up, and giving families the wrong ashes for their loved ones.
Bush spent £9,000 on camping and almost £7,000 on motorcycle racing in the year he told a grieving mother her unborn baby had been cremated, while leaving it on the floor of his funeral home in a paper bag.
Mr Justice Hilliard asked for a detailed breakdown of Bush’s spending, saying: ‘I think people who have lost their money will want to know what it went on.’
Prosecutors said his holiday spending over the seven years included £6,400 on three trips to Center Parcs, £3,800 on a trip to Italy, and £3,000 on the holiday he was taking with his daughter in Arizona when the horrors at the funeral home were discovered.
Records showed that in 2022, the year he failed to cremate Jasmine Beverley’s baby Sunny Beverley-Conlin, he spent more than £9,000 on camping expenses.
Prosecutors also highlighted almost £10,000 of retail spending, including £1,000 in Boodles jewellers, and £3,385 on restaurants, including £250 for a meal at fashionable Covent Garden restaurant Clos Maggiore.
Mr Ball said that between March 17, 2017, and April 8, 2024, almost £1.49 million was transferred into Bush’s personal bank account from Legacy business accounts.
Mr Ball said that in that time the total received in Legacy and Bush’s accounts was more than £3 million, but the turnover reported to Companies House and HM Revenue and Customs did not reflect this.
Bush sat in the glass-fronted dock, wearing a dark suit as he listened to the prosecution case against him continue on Wednesday morning.
Police were called to Legacy’s Hessle Road premises in March 2024 after concerns were raised, and officers found 35 bodies and more than 100 sets of ashes.
In April, Bush pleaded guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and theft from the 12 charities.
He had already admitted 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies found at the site, and four ‘foetus allegations’ of fraud, where he presented ashes to women falsely saying that they were ‘the remains of their unborn’.
Bush also pleaded guilty to a further charge of fraud, covering the ashes of 57 people between 2017 and 2024, and one of fraudulent trading relating to funeral plans between 2012 and 2024.
The sentencing hearing continues.
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