A UK funeral director who stockpiled bodies for months and handed grieving families the wrong ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Robert Bush, who ran Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, spent 12 years abusing customers’ trust “on an almost industrial scale” and “in a myriad of ways” — from mixing up ashes to targeting vulnerable pensioners with bogus funeral plans, the court heard.
Passing sentence today, a judge told Bush that even a lengthy term could not undo the damage.
Mr Justice Hilliard said the 20-year prison sentence could not “put right the harm the defendant has done”.
He warned the fallout stretched beyond the families named in the case, because anyone who used the firm could be left with lingering doubt about whether they were given the correct remains.
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.”
Families involved in the case, outside Hull Crown Court, Kingston-upon-Hull
Mr Justice Hilliard said 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”.
Driven by “financial greed” and showing what the judge called a “heartless side”, Bush ran operations at Legacy’s Hessle Road premises that were described in court as “dreadful”.
“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,” he said.
Mr Justice Hilliard added that any loss of dignity suffered by the dead at Bush’s hands “is more than made up for by the dignity with which the relatives have conducted themselves on their behalf in these proceedings”.
Familes’ not sure if they received the correct ashes
Over four days, the court heard statements from more than 200 victims.
One woman, who was given the wrong ashes for her husband, told Bush he had lulled people in Hull with a mild manner, but in reality was a “cruel conman who used people’s grief to fund his lifestyle”.
A courtroom sketch depicts Robert Bush who pled guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial and 30 counts of fraud by false representation
The court was told Bush’s crimes came to light in March 2024 while he was holidaying with his daughter in Arizona. He contacted two directors from another funeral firm and asked them to assist with a body recovery in his absence.
A casual worker at Legacy then told the two men, “out of the blue”, that bodies had been at the premises “for years”.
Police were alerted and searched the site, finding what prosecutors described as a “shocking” scene: decomposing bodies left on racks inside a cold storage area.
The rest of the premises was in a “lamentable state”, the court heard, with ashes stored in mould, photographs left out of coffins, and jewellery not returned to relatives.
Investigators found 31 bodies — including that of an unborn baby — that should have been cremated months earlier, even though most of the families had already received ashes.
Officers also identified another 57 families who had been given either the wrong ashes or none at all. The court heard there was also a large quantity of unlabelled ashes at the site, meaning anyone who used Legacy during that period could never be certain the ashes they were given were correct.
Several people described having jewellery made from the ashes they believed belonged to a loved one, only to discover they had been carrying around “a total stranger”.
Bush also stole money from 12 charities by not passing on donations collected at his funeral services
Exactly how Bush repeatedly issued the wrong ashes remains unclear, the court heard, because he refused to answer police questions about the practice.
Detective Superintendent Al Curtis said there was evidence Bush mixed up ashes and relied on a communal store, handing out remains when families requested them.
The court heard of instances where Bush gave a client the wrong ashes, then collected the correct ashes from the crematorium as little as two days later.
In police interviews, Bush said, “I’ve never given ashes back that weren’t ashes,” but he declined to explain further.
He claimed all the ashes were human, but the court heard an urn given to one mother was found to contain what are thought to be animal remains.
Four women were given the wrong ashes for their unborn babies.
In one interview, Bush told police he had developed a cash flow crisis because “people did not always pay” and that he was carrying debts of about £90,000.
He said he intended to bring in more work and clear the backlog within two to three months, but never managed to “catch up”.
Despite those debts, the court heard Bush was “profligate” with his own money. Over seven years — during the same period he was defrauding customers — he spent £42,000 on holidays and £21,000 on motorcycle racing.
The court also heard many customers were living on tight budgets, including one woman who said she paid for her mother’s funeral in part through an online fundraising page.
