Ex-funeral director jailed for preventing lawful burials and fraud
Robert Bush will spend a total of 25 years in prison
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An East Yorkshire funeral director has been jailed for 20 years for preventing lawful and decent burial, plus fraud.
Robert Bush had previously pleaded guilty to over 60 offences at Legacy Funeral Directors.
The 48-year-old, previously from Kirk Ella, admitted over 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, as well as 30 counts of fraud.
He also admitted stealing from 12 charities.
The judge praised police and victim support for their work, but said no sentence can undo the harm Bush has caused.
He told the court his actions were driven by financial greed, taking advantage of families at their most vulnerable.
The judge said trust was taken for granted and called Bush’s behaviour shocking and heartless, leaving a profound impact on the Hull community. He urged families not to feel guilty, saying they were not to blame.
Breached their trust on an almost 'industrial scale'
Hull Crown Court has heard Bush defrauded 226 people by charging them for funeral plans he was not authorised to set up, and keeping the money, which amounted to more than half a million pounds over almost 12 years.
Several victims said they had other savings and the plans had been intended as a safety net to save their children from worrying about their funeral costs.
The court also heard he breached the trust placed in him by grieving families “on an almost industrial scale”, by keeping bodies for months after they should have been cremated, giving out the wrong ashes, taking money for funeral plans without making any of the arrangements and stealing charity donations collected at services.
Bush apologised in a letter to the court for his actions, but Richard Wright KC, defending, added his client accepted his apology “is likely to be angrily rejected” by those relatives.
Watched by many of those families, Mr Wright said:
“This offending has caused extreme emotional pain, anguish and upset on a scale that it is difficult to comprehend.”
He said: “He is treated, completely understandably, as a pariah – hated and despised.”
Mr Justice Hilliard said even people who had used Bush’s services but were not directly involved with the case could not be sure they had been given their loved one’s ashes.
He said:
“Unless a body was one of those actually recovered by the police in 2024, and was properly identified, no-one who had a cremation at Legacy at any time can actually know for certain whether they received the right ashes for their loved one, whether or not their case features on the indictment.”
He went on to say Bush was “so pre-occupied with his own enrichment that he behaved in a shocking and disgraceful way towards the deceased entrusted to his care, and his behaviour towards their living relatives was characterised by dishonesty, deception and heartlessness”.
Bush was motivated by “financial greed” and had a “heartless side to him too”, while Legacy’s Hessle Road premises were “dreadful”.
The judge said:
“If he could re-use a coffin someone had already paid for, he would do so.
“If it was cheaper to keep someone in non-refrigerated conditions, he would do that too.”