Why scandal at 'horror movie' funeral home may NOT be an isolated incident: ... trends now
The pavement outside the main branch of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull is covered in flowers.
In the midst of the floral tributes, growing bigger by the day, is a small pink teddy bear with pink bows which has been here from the start, ever since police raided the premises last week and discovered a horror story behind the now shuttered-frontage.
In all 35 bodies that should have been sent for cremation weeks ago — including at least one body allegedly left to decompose — were removed from the building in Hessle Road by forensic officers in white boiler suits.
The unfolding drama in this corner of Hull is reminiscent of an episode from the BBC's Silent Witness or the American series CSI.
Behind it, so many distressing repercussions for grieving families: some fear they have been given the wrong ashes after attending a service at Legacy's Chapel of Rest . . . others have not received any ashes at all . . . one woman is convinced the coffin she kissed at her father's funeral was empty . . . the uncertainty left another relative feeling 'physically sick'.
The company's boss Robert Bush and his employee daughter Saskya Bush
There is even suspicion that the coffin for a much loved grandmother may have been 'second-hand'.
It was 'dented' and the name plaque was not properly attached.
The ripple effect this is having on Hull is epitomised by the fact that more than 1,500 people whose loved ones were handled by Legacy have contacted a dedicated police hotline set up in the wake of the raid.
And the pink teddy bear?
There is no attached note or card to indicate if it was left in memory of a child or by a child for a departed family member.
Either way, it is surely the first time that flowers and tributes, now an all-too familiar sight at roadside and pavement shrines in towns and cities across Britain, have been left outside, and not inside, a High Street undertaker.
The removal of corpses followed a tip-off to Humberside Police which raised concerns about 'storage and management processes relating to care of the deceased'.
Critics argue the controversy is symptomatic of an industry which is unregulated in the UK and in urgent need of an overhaul.
Currently, there are at least two trade bodies with codes of practice, but membership is not compulsory and Legacy Independent Funeral Directors is not signed up to either.
Most firms are well run and offer a caring and compassionate service, but the lack of regulatory control can be easily exploited. One way, we have been told, is by sending a body for cremation but dividing the ashes between two different sets of bereaved relatives, thus doubling the £300 profit a funeral business typically makes on each cremation.
Such a practice can result in the 'stockpiling of bodies' because only one corpse is being disposed of each time.
Crematoriums have only a certain amount of slots available on any given day.
More than 1,500 people whose loved ones were handled by Legacy have now contacted a dedicated police hotline set up in the wake of the raid
So, if a funeral parlour, say, has six customers in a week requesting cremations of their loved ones, but only three are actually cremated, three 'extra' bodies will have to be disposed of at a later date. To extrapolate the sequence further, over a ten-week period, the number of 'extra' bodies rises to 30.
The average High Street undertaker will usually only have 'three or four bodies' in their own mortuary at any one time.
Legacy is run by married father-of-two Robert Bush. Mr Bush, whose wife is a retired teacher, opened the funeral firm nearly 15 years ago and had three branches, two in Hull and the other in nearby Beverley. On the Legacy website, it describes him as a 'highly trained funeral director, with many years of experience, holding industry recognised qualifications,' adding: 'We pride ourselves on the quality of our service and the personal support we offer our clients.' Funeral packages ranged from £970 to £4,999.
Mr Bush's daughter Saskya, 23, a mechanical engineering graduate, helped run the business.
'Each of you do an outstanding job, you should be proud of yourselves,' reads one of several glowing testimonials online praising staff in earlier times.
The family live in a big detached house in the suburbs of Hull.
Father and daughter raced motorbikes in their spare time and are pictured in action at Brands Hatch and Snetterton on social media, where Saskya can also be seen soaking up the sun in Spain and Cape Verde and visiting Rome and Norway. 'It was well known that Rob might be struggling a bit financially,' said the director of another funeral firm. 'Suppliers and tradespeople talk when their bills aren't being paid.'
Some customers complained about the standard of funerals when they popped into neighbouring shops.
'A woman who came in recently was just livid about her grandad's funeral,' revealed one proprietor. 'The car was late, the flowers were not fastened down properly to the coffin and were not the
