Essex man guilty of "funeral fraud"
Mark Kerbey defrauded a grieving family of £2600 by promising to organise a funeral which never took place
A man, who had been banned from organising funerals in Basildon and Southend since 2018, has been convicted after defrauding a grieving family out of £2,600 by promising to organise a funeral which never took place.
Since his ban, Mark Kerbey continued to book and bill families for funerals which were never going to take place.
One was in January 2020, when a bereaved wife paid Kerbey to organise her husband's funeral who died in Southend hospital.
Kerbey, 62, of Station Road Westcliff, had approached the son of the deceased man with a "cheaper" service than other companies in the area.
It was under the business ‘Trinity Funeral Home’, which unbeknownst to the family, had been banned from using facilities at Bowers Gifford Crematorium and Southend cemetery.
In agreeing to arrange the funeral, Kerbey took money from the victim to the value of £2,600 and told the victim and her family the funeral had been arranged for Pitsea Crematorium on February 21.
Kerbey was aware that no funeral had been arranged but still visited the family the night before the funeral and presented them with an order of service.
When the family contacted Kerbey, he laid the blame on others. He also told the family they should come to his funeral home, where a service could be held instead.
Kerbey also sent a limousine to pick up the family which was prepared for use in a 13-year-old girl’s birthday on the same day.
When the mourning group arrived at the funeral home, they found it was a small 15ft by 15ft room and a large part of the group had to wait outside.
The 20-minute service bore no relation to the man who had died.
In total, the family then had to pay an extra £700 to Kerbey for the body of their loved one to be released into the care of a new funeral service.
Mark Kerbey was charged with two counts of fraud by false representation.
Kerbey has previously admitted separate charges, including two counts of perverting the course of justice and two counts of fraud by false representation.
He was found guilty by a jury on Wednesday 26 March and will be sentenced on 25 April.