Bodies in ‘hub’ were stacked like TVs

Former funeral ombudsman Professor Geoffrey Woodroffe described the practices employed by Co-operative Funeralcare as “shocking” after watching the footage obtained for the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary.

They secretly filmed staff working in a so-called “hub”, a warehouse an industrial estate off a busy motorway. Channel 4 said the building contained a large refrigerated area where racks of bodies were stored ahead of funerals, with some just centimetres apart from each other.

Professor Woodroffe said: “I had no idea that they’re treating people as if they’re stacking television sets really.”

When families asked to see their loved ones, the body would be taken back to the funeral home, a journey of up to 30 miles, according to the documentary. The undercover journalist reported that on one occasion, the lid was taken off a coffin as staff tried to fit four coffins into a van. It was carried out without a lid when it reached its destination, near a block of flats.

The documentary, being aired tonight, also tells of a funeral organised by the firm that had to be halted when it was discovered that the wrong body had been brought to the crematorium.

Bereaved Mandy Rowden said of the moment the funeral director stopped proceedings at Teeside Crematorium: “He just sort of pushed her back in again. I said ‘What’s he doing that for?’ And then the vicar came out to me and said ‘we’ve got a bit of a problem’.

“And she informed me that the coffin and the lady in the coffin wasn’t my mum... I just couldn’t believe it.”

Her mother Olwyn’s coffin was then brought to the crematorium in a van. Co-operative Funeralcare waived the costs, paid compensation and disciplined staff members after the incident.

A Co-operative Funeralcare spokesman said they were yet to see the programme, but added: “We do not believe that the instances shown in the programme are representative of our many caring staff. We have, however, launched an immediate investigation.”