Funeral director who left people unburied breached families' trust 'on industrial scale', court hears

Funeral director breached families' trust 'on industrial scale'Image source, Humberside PoliceImage caption, A five-day sentencing hearing has begun to hear details of the "horror scene" at Robert Bush's funeral parlour in HullByPritti Mistry and Linsey Smith, East Yorkshire and LincolnshirePublished1 hour agoA funeral director who failed to bury people and gave families wrong ashes has breached the trust of bereaved families "on an almost industrial scale", a court has heard.Some 35 bodies and more than 100 sets of ashes were found by police raiding Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull in March 2024. Owner Robert Bush previously admitted 67 offences, including 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and theft from 12 charities.At the start of his five-day sentencing hearing on Monday, family members watching proceedings at Hull Crown Court gasped and were in tears as details of the "horror scene" at the parlour were described by prosecutors.This story contains details some might find distressing.Chris Paxton KC told the packed court bodies had been discovered "on the racks" of a cold storage area and one was found on a stretcher on the floor.The vast majority were "uncovered and in varying states of decomposition", including one of a stillborn baby. Bush, 48, was "entrusted by hundreds of bereaved families" but had "breached that trust on an almost industrial scale in a myriad of ways", Paxton said.Image source, Humberside PoliceImage caption, The faces of the victims whose bodies and ashes were recovered from Legacy's premises in 2024Paxton said the scale of Bush's offending was discovered by chance when, while he was on holiday in the US, he asked two funeral directors from another firm to remove a body from a care home.Patrick Moore, a casual worker at Legacy, had been told by Bush "not to bring anyone back to Legacy or help put a body int...