Hundreds of victims of crooked funeral director Robert Bush

Bush, 48, has pleaded guilty to 67 offences spanning 12 years at his firm, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.

Hull Crown Court heard that about 240 victim impact statements from affected people will be submitted before he is sentenced in July.

Funeral director Robert Bush leaves Hull Crown Court on Thursday (April 2) (Image: Scott Heppell/PA Wire)

Robert Bush (Image: Humberside Police)

These include families of the 31 bodies that were kept at his site for months after they should have been cremated, ashes found there that could not be identified, and about 150 people who were sold fraudulent funeral plans.

Speaking outside court after Bush pleaded guilty to all charges, campaigner Karen Dry, whose parents were both cremated at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, said: “There is an enduring sense of deep betrayal, emotional stress, and damage caused by this individual, to many families right across this city.

“From the torment of not knowing whether we have the ashes of our loved ones, to families having the trauma of DNA profiling to establish the identity of their deceased loved ones and having the distress of a second funeral, not to mention the anguish and hardship caused by fraudulent, and now worthless, funeral plans.”

Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Alan Curtis, of Humberside Police, said: “The utter devastation and emotional harm Robert Bush has caused to hundreds of victims and families cannot be underestimated.

“Thirty-one families believed that their loved one had been cremated, when in fact they remained on site within the Legacy premises on Hessle Road. Most had been given ashes and had been advised that their loved ones’ cremation had taken place.

“Other families, who had chosen cremations through Legacy, were left waiting for ashes that have never been provided, or were deceived by Bush and given ashes that we now know were not their loved ones.

“The distress and devastation that this has caused for those families is simply unimaginable.

“People paid Bush for funeral plans, so in the future their families didn’t have to worry about costs and arrangements for their own funerals.

“He betrayed this trust, leaving some victims with the uncertainty around their own funeral arrangements and without the means to pay for them.

“The damage he has caused to families across our communities is quite possibly irreparable, with so many victims who have suffered and continue to do so.”

Victims of Robert Bush

Thirty people whose bodies were found at the funeral home:

• Norman Bridger
• Jonathan Butler
• Muriel Winning
• Raymond Dagnall
• Colin Wainman
• Maureen Graham
• Susan Gorbutt
• Shirley Wright
• Mark Hotham
• John Carlill
• Joyce Moulton
• Terence Buck
• David Burton
• Audrey Leach
• Danny Middleton
• Tony Munro
• Jessie Stockdale
• Peter Moody
• Jean Collinson
• Alan Gray
• Hilda Mary Rhodes
• Stephen Perrins
• Joan Stark
• Brian Johnson
• Graham Finn
• Terence White
• Susan Stone
• Herbert James Porter
• Peter Brown
• Julie Web

Four “foetus allegations” where Bush falsely told mothers the ashes he gave them were the remains of their unborn children:

• Jasmine Beverley
• Katie Woolston
• Stacey Foster
• Lucy James-Guest Ness

Fifty-seven victims of fraud over ashes:

• Michelle Drewry
• Shelly Chearman
• Richard Collins
• Brooke Atkinson
• Linda Hall
• Billie-Jo Chapman
• Petrina Featherstone
• Carl Osler
• Dianne Scandole
• Carol Brown
• David Greensides
• Norma Ellam
• Maxine Penrose
• Sharon Shimmells
• Claire Wilkinson
• Mark Anderson
• Kadie Laws
• Tracy Hudson
• Paul Whitehead
• Harry Welsh
• Tracey Hartley
• Jackie Delaney
• Jillian Townhill
• Christine Colville
• Kirstie Hobden
• Michelle Martin
• Donald Leslie Brigham
• Lee Clark
• Curtis Neylon
• Susan Brown
• Gillian Owst
• Sheila Robinson
• Brett Moses
• Richard Shaw
• Mandy Bailey
• Valerie Coates
• James Meikleham
• Yvonne Robinson
• Heather Welford
• Michael Endall
• Debra Lawson
• Joyce Rispin
• Peter Welburn
• Samantha Rosenquest
• Lisa Thompson-Frazer
• Sylvia Rawson
• Mark Hague
• Lynn Farmery
• Macey Urry
• Kirsty Young
• Tracey Brigham
• Bille-Jo Suffill
• Jill Hall
• Brendon Brown
• Rebecca Windas
• Sophie Tibbles-Carrott
• Rebecca Thompson

Twelve charities that Bush stole from by failing to pass on donations collected at funerals

• Salvation Army
• MacMillan Cancer Support
• CHIEF
• Dogs Trust
• Dove House
• Help for Heroes
• Maister Lodge
• Oakwood Dog Rescue
• RNLI
• Sailors Children Society
• WISHH
• Hull Fishing Heritage Charity