CPS Freezes Robert Bush Assets After 67 Convictions to Recover Victim Funds

2 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 1

Prosecutors froze jailed funeral director Robert Bush’s bank accounts and assets after his 20-year sentence, aiming to confiscate crime proceeds and compensate affected families.
67 offences included denying 30 people proper burials, giving families strangers’ ashes, selling fake funeral plans to more than 200 people and stealing charity donations.
£3.5 million flowed through Legacy and Bush’s personal accounts between 2017 and 2024, while court evidence showed he took £162,000 a year and transferred about £52,000 annually to his wife.
Up to £12,000 was stolen from 12 charities, and CPS prosecutors said the case exposed a long-running business model rather than a sudden financial collapse.
Since 2012, investigators said, Bush’s conduct went undetected for years, prompting some families to demand tighter regulation of the funeral industry.