Legacy Independent Funeral Directors: Hull funeral director Robert Bush faces sentencing on 67 charges

Bush, 47, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, gave grieving families the wrong ashes while their loved ones' bodies were left in his parlour for months.

He also has admitted presenting families with the ashes of strangers and fraudulently selling funeral plans.

Bush, who ran the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors premises on Hessle Road, also stole money he had received from families who requested that the funds be sent to their chosen charities. A dozen charities say that they never received these donations.

Sentencing of the 47-year-old on a total of 67 charges, including the prevention of a lawful and decent burial, fraud, fraudulent trading, and theft, is due to begin at Hull Crown Court on Monday, before Mr Justice Hilliard. The case has been listed for five days.

Despite a series of scandals, funeral directors in England and Wales can operate without a licence — unlike tattooists, vets and driving instructors.

Anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director. They could do it from home and keep bodies in their garage without anybody being able to stop them. Nor are they obliged to keep the deceased in refrigerated, climate-controlled conditions.

Trade organisations and most professional funeral directors support industry reform and mandatory statutory regulation, following high-profile cases such as the David Fuller necrophilia case

Fuller was sentenced to 16 years in 2021 for abusing more than 100 dead women and children in mortuaries in Kent.

Earlier this year funeral directors Richard Elkin, 49 and Hayley Bell, 42, who ran Elkin and Bell Funerals in Gosport, were jailed for four years for keeping 46 bodies in unrefrigerated conditions.

While roughly 85 per cent of funeral practices already voluntarily submit to trade body codes and inspections, the rest operate without scrutiny.

Regulated members want uniform compliance to restore public trust.

Scotland introduced a statutory Funeral Director Code of Practice, last March.

Pure Cremation, one of Britain's biggest funeral providers, says the current system is “failing the deceased and the bereaved” and is calling for licensing, annual inspections and an independent statutory regulator within three years.

Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage said: “At a time of great sadness, families need confidence that at the very least the body of their loved one is being treated with dignity and care.

"The sector needs to rebuild public confidence and redouble efforts to prevent bereaved families ever having to endure the horrors we saw in the Gosport case through stronger regulation and greater transparency." Hull MPs, led by Emma Hardy, have also pressed the government to introduce regulation and licensing for funeral directors.