A funeral director has admitted multiple charges of fraud, with a court hearing that he breached the trust of grieving families “on an almost industrial scale” while spending their money on himself.
‘Horror scene’ discovered
The “horror scene” at his premises, Hull-based Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, was discovered in March 2024 when he was on holiday. Police, tipped off that something criminal may be going on, found bodies in varying states of decomposition, including a stillborn baby.
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.”
Discovery by chance
The scale of offending was discovered by chance. While Bush was in Arizona, he contacted Gary Pickering and Steve Emmerson, directors of Evergreen Funeral Directors, asking them to assist with a body recovery. Patrick Moore, a casual worker for Legacy, helped them collect the body from a care home but said Bush had told him “not to bring anyone back to Legacy or help put a body into the fridge area”.
Moore told the men: “You two don’t know the half of it, bodies have been there for years.” After becoming suspicious, Emmerson telephoned Moore and asked how many bodies were there. Moore counted up to 29, describing it as something from a “horror scene”.
Emmerson and Pickering persuaded Moore to let them into Legacy’s site on Hessle Road, despite him being afraid of “repercussions”. They were “shocked” at what they saw and flagged down a passing police car to report it.
Police findings
When police attended, they found bodies stored on racks in a cold storage area, the vast majority “uncovered and in varying states of decomposition”. The home was “dirty and unkept”, with items including flowers, rings, teddies, and cards on the floor that “loved ones would have wanted to stay with their deceased family members”.
During a search, a police officer found a brown paper bag containing a “tiny item” initially thought to be a baby bird. It had two hospital wristbands wrapped around the waist with the words, ‘Baby of Jasmine Beverley, born on 13/05/22 at 05:04’. The prosecutor said: “He was shocked. The investigation established that these were the identification wristbands placed around the waist of babies by the hospital when they were too small for them to be placed around the wrist. Jasmine Beverley gave birth to baby Sunny on 13 May 2022, aged 18 weeks.”
Arrest and interviews
Bush was arrested at Heathrow Airport on his return from holiday on March 10 2024. After being cautioned, he said: “Saskia (his daughter) is unaware of that, that I have deceived everyone from that.” He later said: “I’ve f***** it all up, everything, my whole world.”
In his first police interview, Bush said he had a cash-flow problem because “people did not always pay,” and had debts of about £90,000. He said he struggled with lease payments and believed there were about 30 bodies at the Hessle Road site, with five to six “recent” and waiting to be cremated. He said his plan was to generate more business and clear the backlog within two to three months. He believed the oldest body retained was from April 2023, generally of people above 60.
In his second interview, he answered “no comment” to most questions about the bodies found at Legacy.
Financial misconduct
The court heard that between March 2017 and April 2024, more than £3 million was paid into his business and personal accounts, but the turnover reported to HMRC does not reflect this. During this time, Bush’s “profligate personal spending” and transfers to his wife accounted for over £879,000.
Paxton said: “The financial situation within the business was not dire, but likely mismanaged, and the expenditure reflected Mr Bush’s priorities and not those whom he was meant to be serving. For all of Mr Bush’s claims about his finances, it should be borne in mind that the cost of a single cremation was around £500, and yet Mr Bush chose not to deal with those bodies entrusted to him but to operate as he chose and spend the money on himself and others.”
