Funeral director Robert Bush breached the trust of grieving families “on an almost industrial scale” while spending their money on himself, a court has heard. At the start of a five-day sentencing hearing at Hull Crown Court, prosecutor Chris Paxton KC said Bush “operated within the heart of the community for around 14 years, entrusted by hundreds of bereaved families, in their time of need, to treat their loved ones with dignity”.
He added: “And yet over almost 12 of those years, Mr Bush breached that trust on an almost industrial scale in a myriad of ways – by selling funeral plans when not authorised to do so; by failing to bury or cremate loved ones; by falsely claiming he had done so when presenting families with ashes which were not those of their loved ones. He raised expectations, made false promises and stole cash donations intended for local and national charities. All of Mr Bush’s offences impacted young and old alike across the community of Hull and beyond.” The court heard that the scale of his offending was discovered by chance, when he was in Arizona and contacted Gary Pickering and Steve Emmerson – the directors of Evergreen Funeral Directors – asking them to assist him with a body recovery whilst he was away.
Patrick Moore – a casual worker for Legacy – helped the two men collect the body from the care home, but said Bush had told him “not to bring anyone back to Legacy or help put a body into the fridge area”. The court heard Mr Moore then told the men: “You two don’t know the half of it, bodies have been there for years.” After becoming suspicious that operations at Legacy were not as they should be, Mr Emmerson telephoned Mr Moore and asked how many bodies were there. Mr Moore counted up to 29 bodies, describing it as being something from a “horror scene”. The court heard Mr Emmerson and Mr Pickering persuaded Mr Moore to let them into Legacy’s site on Hessle Road, despite him initially being afraid of “repercussions”. The two men were “shocked” at what they saw at Legacy and flagged down a passing police car to report it.
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