To not understand the Hull funeral directors story?

[GameOfJones]

I've just seen an update to the news story and it sounds absolutely terrible.

35 bodies now identified at the funeral directors, some of whom have relatives that believed they had already been cremated and had been given their ashes. It sounds so upsetting.

What I can't understand is what on Earth was going on? I sort of get they may have been taking the money to cremate bodies then not actually doing so.....but then what the heck were they planning to do with the bodies they had in storage?

@ruhroh Irish are not British, nor are Americans. I'm not actually sure this is the topic for anti British sentiment.

It's another shocking story amongst others.
No one apart from the ones working with the deceased actually knows what goes on behind closed doors, so to speak.
It's probably not the only place to have committed, or is carrying on shocking practices, nor will it be the last.

Yes.

Death portraits were very popular.

I know there's been some issues with some companies going bust after they've taken the money that people have paid long in advance.

That's why I'll probably use the Co-Op as less likely to go bust.

I think they had 3 premises, none in particularly nice places and they had to shut one

So they were obviously getting in financial trouble, which then spiralled

Many years ago I had a holiday job as a gardener at a Crem.
The mess room was next to where the Bodies were cremated- There were four cremators, and only room for one body in each .

No way could more than one be fitted in there at once, and the coffin always went with the person.

The Remains that came from the Cremator were labelled with the person’s name and great care was taken that they never got mis labelled.

I’d read that the cremators have had an upgrade now, but there would still only be room for one coffined body at a time.

The crematorium would know if there was a body in the coffin or not!

The ashes would be missing.

Just so upsetting for the relatives.

Oddly when I asked about this possibility at the crem where I had the gardening job, they said the gas used would need to be accounted for .

Plus- only one body at a time could be cremated per “ Cremator”

I really can’t see that this would happen- there are too many staff that would know about it.
( It was a London crem I worked at)

It makes me wonder is it better not to know, if you were a family affected would you want to know or prefer to go on believing you had the correct ashes etc?

I think there were complaints about the smell and authorities took it from there.

Yes, the Crem I worked at - they did check during the process-
They absolutely would know of there was more than one body in the coffin.

Like any other business, there are risks and rewards that some people understand better than others.
Where the deceased prepaid for their funeral fifteen years ago but has only recently died, undertakers could have saved on finance for cars, upgraded/extended premises, bought energy efficient equipment - or spent the money on wages and dividends.
The price of gas caught out many and the Government has indulged the energy companies at our expense, the undertakers may have been banking on a sharp drop in cremation costs, only to have been simultaneously bitten by local authorities seeking to balance the books.
There must be an audit trail for cremations - much of the body can be disposed of fairly easily, but you would need to show 35 disposal fees for 35 bodies.
Sounds like someone didn't get an expected backhander and blew the whistle.

I think the residents of Beverley would take issue with the description of it being “not a particularly nice place”! It’s a relatively well-to-do market town a few miles away from Hull. The branch has already had all branding removed.

The maritime team involvement is, as pp says, because they are experienced in handling and identifying bodies where the person died some time ago. We have quite a bit of shoreline and sadly many people take their own lives, as well as the usual occurrence of marine accidents. They are kept busy shall we say.

That’s horrendous.
At school there was a genuine antique human Skeleton ( probably belonged to a medical school years back)
The skeleton was burnished with age and handling - He was a male, small and delicate- of face.
probably 19 th century.

I used to wonder who he’d been in life, and why he wasn’t buried.

Appallingly there is a black market in human skeletons in Kolkata , India, stolen like in the days of Burke and Hare.

India so say produce the best skeletons for medical schools.

Worrying if these are stolen though.

The Press are absolute bastards to be hounding a family like this-
Despicable.
I hope your friend tells them to “ Eff orf” in the words of Princess Anne!

We’ve had 2 direct funerals in our family, I’ll probably get one myself. The company picked up the body from hospital, then other than calling in to the directors we heard nothing until the ashes were to be collected.
For the first we were told when the cremation would take place but we weren’t. For the second when we went to pick up the ashes we were given the wrong ones- didn’t notice until we got the box home and checked the name!
we were given a choice of crems as some are cheaper than others. In our area it’s a lot more expensive than one 10 miles away.
I suppose it would be easy to put 2 bodies in a coffin and only pay the crem to creamate one.

I think direct funerals are a good idea, unfortunately incidents like this will put people off. It’s a new concept that I think needs to be checked a lot more.

I 've organised 3 funerals in recent years and always stated I do not want the ashes. So presumably there's a ready supply available for misuse.

No windows. Not for the living. ;)

Are you catholic? All my Liverpool family (and there’s many) do this and have for years

Irish/RC but living in UK - the usual procedure that I know of here is we had the body taken to church (direct from the undertakers) for a service of reception the evening before the funeral. It stayed in church overnight and the funeral was the next day.

It’s like those mortuary crimes by that horrible man. I don’t think I’d want to know, but sadly you have to be told

There are also private emergency ambulances contracted for Nhs work but they look like regular ambulances.

There was a funeral directors in Northumberland a few years ago which was in court for 'fraud relating to pre-paid funeral plans'.
My dad had his pre-paid plan with that business, but that was in the mid 1990s, and we had no (apparent) problem with them then.
One of the directors was driving around in a top of the range Range Rover, though, with Burberry rugs and cushions in the back, and he'd turn up to the bereaved family's house literally dripping in gold jewellery.
I found it in very poor taste, some families had struggled to pay for their funerals, and he was so incredibly ostentatious.
Also, every time they placed a death/funeral notice in the local newspapers, the company name was mentioned, stating their 'dignified and compassionate handling' of the funeral arrangements. That would have cost the families more for the extra wording in the notices, but it was their standard practice.
Three of the directors of this particular company were, according to a local newspaper 'in the dock together to face a varying number of charges, which spanned over a decade. It's alleged that each committed fraud by false representation by selling pre-paid funeral plans on the basis that the cash would be held "safely and securely" in a separate account, which was false.'
I imagine it's something which, bearing in mind that when dealing with these companies, people are distressed and not thinking straight, it's very easy to be unclear about what's actually going on. And very easy to mismanage.
Disgusting, but I don't think these two businesses will be the only ones, unfortunately. I suspect more may come out of the woodwork sooner or later.
I think l'll go with the Co-Op. At least they're well established.
And quite frankly, l won't care by the time l need their services.
It's different for people with families and loved ones. They need to know that their loved ones are being looked after with dignity and respect.

We didn't have a wake after my Dad's funeral 2 years ago. He'd hated the one we had after Mum died and made clear he didn't want one. In addition, we have a very small family and Dad's friends were all gone by the time he died. My brother and I felt it would be embarrassing and sad to hold a wake with very few people there.

We just went back to my brother's afterwards and had a cup of tea and a sandwich.