Jasmine Beverley sobbed as she turned to funeral director Robert Bush in court and said: “I trusted you with the most precious person in my life.” Her unborn son Sunny Beverley-Conlin was found in a brown paper bag on the floor of Bush’s business, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, almost two years after his death.
How the betrayal unfolded
Ms Beverley and her partner Ben chose Legacy for Sunny’s funeral after Ms Beverley had used Bush for her late father’s service. She tearfully told Hull Crown Court: “My son Sunny was born sleeping, but he was loved long before he entered this world and he will be loved for the rest of my life.”
The couple visited Sunny at Legacy on June 16, 2022, leaving a photograph, a blue fleece blanket and flowers. A small service took place the next day at Legacy’s chapel. The couple believed Sunny was to be cremated at Chanterlands Avenue Crematorium. They collected his ashes on March 30, 2023, when Bush handed them a little blue coffin and said Sunny’s ashes were inside in an envelope.
Sunny’s remains were only recovered almost two years after his birth when a police officer found them in a brown paper bag on the floor of Legacy.
Victim’s statement
Ms Beverley sobbed as she said: “When I discovered what had happened, it reopened that trauma in a way I cannot fully describe.” She added: “Your actions have taken away something that can never be replaced: the peace of believing our loved ones were treated with care and respect after death.”
She continued: “The reality I now live with is that my baby boy Sunny has spent more time in your possession than he ever did with his own family.”
Other families affected
The court heard from the family of Jim Porter, 80, whose body was recovered from Legacy with his hospital identification bands still on. His daughter Tina Thames said: “The only way I can describe it is like seeing images of the bodies found in Auschwitz during the war.”
The family of Terry White, 73, also spoke. His daughter Angela Scottow said: “Dad was such a lovely man and Robert Bush treated him like a piece of meat.” Mr White’s body was recovered more than two months after his death. His family had collected ashes from Legacy, but the crematorium had no record of him being cremated.
Alan Chearman’s widow Shelley Chearman looked towards Bush as she told him: “You fooled a lot of people in Hull with your mild manner, when in fact you are a cruel conman.”
Scale of the fraud
Prosecutor Chris Paxton KC said the total monetary value of the fraud was £86,868. In addition to the bodies found at Legacy, Bush committed fraud in relation to 57 sets of ashes – including 46 families given the wrong ashes, and 11 families never given any at all. He also admitted four 'foetus allegations' of fraud, presenting ashes to women falsely as the remains of their unborn children. Bush further pleaded guilty to one charge of fraudulent trading relating to funeral plans between 2012 and 2024.
Bush, 48, pleaded guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, theft from 12 charities, and multiple fraud charges. Over 12 years, he breached trust “on an almost industrial scale”, the court heard.
