'Monster' funeral director admits preventing 30 burials and stealing money from mourners
Robert Bush, 48 pleaded guilty to theft from 12 charities including the Salvation Army and Macmillan Cancer Support
A fraudulent funeral director has admitted to preventing 30 lawful burials and deceiving charities after police found 35 bodies and more than 100 sets of ashes at his funeral home in Hull.
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Robert Bush, 48, has pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial over bodies found at his business in 2024 after denying the charges.
Bush, who ran Legacy Independent Funeral Directors’ in Hull, had his business searched by police in March of 2024.
Bush had initially denied those offences at a court hearing last October, but on Thursday he changed his pleas and admitted the 30 charges.
He also pleaded guilty to theft from 12 charities including the Salvation Army and Macmillan Cancer Support.
At October’s hearing, Bush admitted 30 counts of fraud by false representation over the same 30 people.
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Bush also pleaded guilty to four “foetus allegations” of fraud, where he presented ashes to women falsely saying that they were “the remains of their unborn”.
He admitted a further charge of fraud covering the ashes of 57 people between 2017 and 2024, and one of fraudulent trading relating to funeral plans between 2012 and 2024.
Prosecutor Chris Paxton KC said there would be about 240 victim impact statements provided before Robert Bush’s sentencing hearing from people that had been affected.
Mr Paxton said: “The fraudulent trading count relates to funeral plans involves over 150 individuals.”
Richard Wright KC, representing Bush, said: “He well understands that there is only one form of sentence in this case, and that will be a custodial sentence.”
The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, said on Thursday: “A custodial sentence is inevitable in this case.“
But I think (the report) will help me in understanding Mr Bush’s personal circumstances.”
Bush was bailed until his sentencing hearing on July 27.
Before the hearing, affected families described Bush as “a monster” who “put us all through hell for his own selfishness”.
Karen Dry, who trusted Bush with her parents’ funerals in 2016 and 2018, has organised monthly vigils for victims since the investigation started in 2024.
She told the Press Association she would never be sure whether the ashes she was given by Bush were actually her parents, leaving the “heartbreaking” possibility that they might not be together in death as they wanted.
Mrs Dry said: “I’ve had people ringing me saying, ‘I had a tattoo done for my grandma, from her ashes’, and it turns out that the ashes that she’s now got tattooed are not her grandma’s.
“How do you come to terms with that? It’s so hard.
“And that’s just one example… It’s really shocking.”
She described Bush as “disgusting,” saying: “What a despicable human being he really turned out to be. He’s a monster.”
Michaela Baldwin, whose stepfather Danny Middleton was one of the bodies found at the site, months after he was supposed to have been cremated, said Bush had “put us all through hell for his own selfishness”.
She told the Press Association: “We put our trust and faith in these people to respect him and do things properly,
“People say it’s just a body – that body represents that person’s life and what they’ve done in their life.
“We trust these people to do that with respect.
“It’s just pure and utter greed.”
Tristan Essex’s grandmother Jessie Stockdale was identified through DNA after her body was also found at the funeral home.
He said Bush “genuinely seemed like he cared” and the family went back to the premises several times after they were told Ms Stockdale had been cremated.
“We’d been in there a few times afterwards to get the ashes transferred and the whole time my grandma was there in the back, just rotting,” Mr Essex said.