Funeral director faces court after remains found 'relating to 254 victims' at premises
25 June 2025, 08:24
A funeral director is to appear in court charged with 64 offences relating to 254 victims after an investigation into remains found at his premises.
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Robert Bush, 47, faces 30 counts of preventing a lawful burial and 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies found at the firm’s Hessle Road site in Hull in March last year.
He has also been charged with one count of fraudulent trading in relation to funeralplans sold between May 2012 and March 2024, encompassing 172 victims.
As well as this Bush has been charged one count of fraud in relation to human ashes, encompassing 50 victims, between August 2017 and March 2024, Humberside Police said previously.
Police, alongside forensic scientists, in April 2024, determined it would be impossible to extract any DNA from the ashes to identify victims, because the high temperatures involved in a cremation would have broken down any potential samples.
Since then, police reported comprehensive inquiries and detailed work had been carried out from documentation found with individual ashes and at the premises.
This information could be used to potentially identify and locate next of kin, they said.
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In May 2024, a hearing to dissolve Legacy funeral home was help as the firm owed Hull city council £40,938 in unpaid fees and owed £5,000 in utility bills.
Solicitor advocate Paul Thompson, representing the council, said the issues came to light when a whistleblower contacted the police on March 6 2024 over concerns about “the way bodies were stored”.
He said the company “certainly will not ever operate again”.
Bush is also accused of two counts of theft from charities between September 2022 and March 2024.
He is due to appear at Hull Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The force launched an investigation into Legacy Independent Funeral Directors across three premises in Hull and East Yorkshire in March last year.
Bush, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, was charged in April this year.
