Police have charged a funeral director with 64 offences in connection with an investigation into a Hull-based funeral service accused of mishandling of human remains.
Robert Bush, 47 from East Yorkshire, has been charged with a total of 64 offences after officers discovered 35 bodies, along with suspected human ashes, at the firm’s premises on Hessle Road in Hull in March 2024.
This includes 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, 30 counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of theft from charities, one count of fraudulent trading and one count of fraud in relations to human ashes.
This follows a lengthy investigation that has already shaken local communities, with several families left devastated by the possibility that their loved ones’ remains may have been improperly handled.
Humberside Police confirmed that a comprehensive file of evidence, consisting of over 13,000 exhibits, had been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for consideration.
A third person has been arrested as part of an investigation into a funeral parlour which has been accused of improperly caring for the dead. Pictured: A police officer stands outside the company in March
Police recovered 35 bodies from its Hessle Road site along with a quantity of ashes in March
Flowers pay tribute to the deceased which have been placed outside the Hessle Road branch of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors on March 13
Deputy Chief Constable Dave Marshall said: ‘On Wednesday, 6 march 2024, we received information of concern for the care of the deceased at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors across three premises in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
‘Following the report, a complex, protracted and highly sensitive 10-month investigation commenced, with a file of evidence submitted to the CPS on Thursday, 16 January 2025 to comprehensively review.
‘Today, I can confirm Robert Bush, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, has been charged with a combined total of 64 offences in connection to the investigation.
‘These charges include 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial and 30 counts of fraud by false representation in relation to the deceased recovered from the funeral premises, both between 20 April, 2023 and 6 March, 2024.
‘Two counts of theft from charities between 1 September, 2022 and 6 March, 2024.
‘One count of fraudulent trading in relation to funeral plans between 23 May, 2012 and 6 March, 2024 encompassing 172 victims.
‘One count of fraud in relation to human ashes between 1 August, 2017 and 6 March, 2024, involving 50 victims.
‘He has been bailed with conditions to appear at Hull Magistrates’ Court charges with the offences on Wednesday, 25 June, 2025.
‘We have updated the families of the 35 deceased with this development and we have made initial contact with additional victims who have been affected by the investigation and we will e personally in touch with them in the coming days.
‘As the investigation now moves into the courts and judicial process, I would please ask people to refrain from any speculation or commenting that could prejudice or jeopardise the case, and to allow those affected to get the answers they desperately need and rightly deserve.
‘My sincerest thanks go out to those affected for their patience and understanding. They have always been the priority and at the very heart of the entire investigation and this will remain, and we would please ask their privacy is continued to be respected’.
The police have been in close contact with the families of the 35 deceased, with officers informing them of the latest developments.
Humberside Police said they began visiting families in January as part of the huge inquiry into the remains found at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull.
Susan Stone’s, 78, (pictured) body was still in the Legacy building with her name tag attached seven weeks after her death
Billie Jo is pictured kissing her father’s coffin. He passed away on July 9 2022. She told the Daily Mirror newspaper in March: ‘I bet my dad was not even in the coffin – it was an empty coffin’
On its website Legacy promises ‘the best service and care available’
Due to the high heat used to destroy the bodies, no DNA evidence was able to be recovered from the ashes so the families were traced through paperwork.
Officers searched the site, along with others on Anlaby Road and in Beverley following a report of concern about the storage and management of the bodies.
Since detectives announced their investigation into the firm, hundreds of families across Hull and East Yorkshire have been left questioning whether they have the ashes of their loved ones, with some saying they have been told they definitely have the wrong remains.
One of the bodies discovered at the site belonged to much-loved 78-year-old grandmother Susan Stone.
Her son Martin Stone, 52, told the Mail her body should have been cremated.
But the family got a phone call from Humberside Police to inform them that Mrs Stone’s body was still in the Legacy building with her name tag attached seven weeks later.
It was too decomposed to be identified and dental records were required to carry out the formal process before she was eventually cremated.
A picture shows a branch of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull on March 13
Police cars outside the Hessle Road branch of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull
The furious father-of-two at the time said: ‘I just wanted to get revenge because of what happened to my mum, it’s disgusting.
‘I was fuming. Her body had been there for seven weeks. It had just been dumped there and wasn’t even in a freezer.’
Other grieving relatives have spoken of their torment after police received more than 1,000 calls as part of an alleged scandal at the funeral directors.
Billie-Jo Suffill, a mother of three from Hull, said she felt ‘physically sick’ after not receiving her father’s ashes.
The 33-year-old lost 52-year-old Andrew Suffill in July 2022, and her brother Dwane Suffill, 34, five days later.
She said: ‘I got ashes back from my brother’s funeral. But now I don’t even know if they are his ashes. I never got any from my dad and now I never will.’
She told the Daily Mirror newspaper in March: ‘I bet my dad was not even in the coffin – it was an empty coffin.
‘I was kissing an empty coffin. When I think about it, it is disgusting. It’s like something out of a horror movie.’
Humberside Police confirmed more than 120 police and civilian staff were working on the ‘extremely complex and sensitive investigation’ in March.
Richard Shaw, from Woodmansey, near Hull, used the funeral home for his wife Rita’s cremation in October 2023. In December, he was given an urn by the company containing what he was told were her ashes.
But in March he was one of the families who learned that his loved one’s ashes were not in the urn but had been found in a mortuary at Hull Royal Infirmary.
Mr Shaw said to the BBC about the latest development: ‘I have to believe these latest ashes are Rita’s or I’ll go crackers.
‘I am very angry.’
