Softly-spoken undertaker Robert Bush, with his mealy-mouthed platitudes, was always ready for grieving relatives – but was addicted to life in the fast lane and the high-speed fantasy lifestyle was funded by the bereaved people he conned
Robert Bush was a funeral director with two faces.
Front of house he was all charm and compassion, softly telling grieving customers; ‘Oh bless you’ while touching his heart as they told him about their loss.
He’d pat their arms gently as he escorted them out, promising their loved ones were now in safe hands.
But it was all fake – even his voice – and the grim reality lurking behind the funeral parlour doors was carnage, chaos… and 35 rotting bodies.
The softly-spoken undertaker, with his mealy-mouthed platitudes, was always ready for grieving relatives… but was addicted to life in the fast lane. His high-speed fantasy lifestyle was funded by the bereaved people he conned.
An expert who studied pictures of Bush’s customised superbikes and top-of-the range leathers for the Mirror, believed his passion for motorbikes could have set him back a six-figure sum. The court had only been told he’d spent a more modest £21,000 on his motor racing hobbies.
Today, Robert Bush was sentenced for 67 offences spanning 12 years, including keeping bodies for months, selling dodgy funeral plans, stealing charity donations and handing back the ashes of strangers, even in one case of an animal, to relatives who believed they were receiving the last remains of their loved ones.
Horrified victims have told how they felt comforted by this ‘endearing’ man and the serenity of his chapel of rest at Legacy Funeral Services premises in Hessle Road, Hull.
His desk was free of clutter, surrounded by thank you cards from unsuspecting families. One of those cards could have been from Jasmine Beverley, a grieving mum, sent when she had no idea her stillborn son, Sunny Beverley-Conlin, was hidden a few feet away in a paper bag.
Jasmine recalled Bush’s traditional manners and calming air: “He was like a proper old-fashioned gentleman,” she said. “I put £20 in a card to say thank you. When I gave it to him, he touched his heart and thanked me.
“His properties all looked olde-worldey and you think ‘this is nice’ and ‘I would like my loved one to be here’. But it was all a show, behind those doors it was a different story and that’s the part he was hiding from us.”
Jasmine points out that even his voice was fake: “When I saw his arrest video his voice had changed, it was different when he spoke to us. He was so well spoken and calming to us. But after his second arrest the mask slipped and he was a different person.”
To the outside world, teetotal Bush, 48, could not have been more respectable. He is originally from the seaside resort of Bridlington, East Yorkshire and was the son of a headmistress. His wife, Vicky was once believed to have been his mum’s deputy at the school where she taught.
Vicky, 53, was listed as a director of Legacy and enjoyed theatre trips to London and meals in Covent Garden with her husband and holidayed at Center Parcs. She is now believed to be retired.
The court heard she received £52,000 a year on average from the funeral business, but Bush was at pains to tell the police his wife and daughter had no idea about the illegal goings-on there. He told one officer: “My wife never even worked for the business. She was on the payroll for tax purposes.”
The family lived together in a detached £400,000 bungalow in the upmarket Hull suburb of Kirk Ella for more than 10 years. The property is now derelict and, according to locals, has recently been sold with the front garden now overgrown with weeds.
Respectable Bush, who apparently suggested he’d once worked in the prison service and military in his early years, was well regarded by his neighbours. They would see him walking his two little white Maltipoo dogs every day and continuing the charm offensive, saying ‘bless you’ as they crossed paths.
They recall the dad-of-two and his oldest daughter shared a passion for super-bikes, having at least one each and both posting about it on Instagram. Five times a year he would head off to race track days at Caldwell Park in Lincolnshire, riding there in top of the range leathers – which were stored carefully side by side at Legacy, treated with a lot more respect than bodies nearby.
Bush had a seven-ton truck with its own mobile garage on the back to transport his cherished motorbikes. Neighbours said he used to complain about the cost of the track fees.
The family also owned a jet ski at one time which he used to take on a trailer to the Seven Lakes Country Park caravan and water sports centre at Crowle in Lincolnshire, staying in a static caravan.
Locals say his eldest daughter went into the family business after finishing university with a degree in engineering, but later started work selling medical supplies. His youngest daughter was just 17 when he was arrested. The court heard his offending had also ‘devastated’ their lives.
One neighbour said: “They just kept together as a family. They walked the two poodles and kept their girls close to their hearts. They didn’t have many friends. The girls were into super-bikes themselves. They used to bring trial bikes home and ride up and down the street.
“It was funny. Because the majority of people around here are old people. The girls used to do lovely gifts for all the old people at Christmas and Easter.
“No one ever really visited, apart from both sets of elderly parents. She recently lost her mother. They had a nice do for that while other people were rotting in the shed.”
Another neighbour said: “They came across as really family orientated. Like they were really caring. When we moved in five years ago my husband was extending the house at the back. Mr Bush offered to help but then said he could not dig.
“They altered the layout of the bungalow to accommodate Mrs Bush’s sick mother but she died before she could move in. It was about two years ago, just before the scandal broke. The funeral was a low-key, one-hearse affair.”
Another neighbour said: “They don’t drink any alcohol. When I said, ‘You will have to come and have a glass of wine with us’, his wife says ‘We only drink homemade lemonade’.
“Even after his arrest, he still kept coming to the house to take all his stuff out. Even though he was on remand. He was coming and picking up his bikes and all sorts. He used to come with his cap pulled down over his face.” A proceeds of crime hearing is to be held at a later date in Hull.
Another man who lives nearby said of Bush’s expensive hobby: “I have a bike myself. To run a super-bike costs about a quarter of a million quid a year.” They used to even have a specialist van come with diagnostics and auto turning, according to the neighbours.
A motorbike expert in Yorkshire, who did not wish to be named, studied the leathers and bikes he’d stored at Legacy said: “If you are really into your bike it can be a money pit and you can spend tens of thousands on it. It is quite a common occurrence for motorcyclists to spend all their money on it.
“From a look at his leathers these are the pinnacle and you can see from the scuff marks they’ve fallen off quite a bit. It wouldn’t surprise me if he spent more than 100,000 on his hobby.”
He pointed out the Suzuki large capacity bike, a GSX-R 1000R capable of speeds of up to 186mph, could be worth £40,000 each new but even more with Bush as they had been customised.
“There’s been some money sank into them to make them that way,” he said, pointing out the extra bodywork. “Then you‘ve got new suspensions that can be £8,000 and wheels are £2,500 each.”
“The four leather suits themselves could have cost around £6,000 in total with up to £2,000 for the helmets and visors. Looks like he had Alpinestar and Dainese suits, they are often referred to as the pinnacle of motorcycle wear, especially when it comes to leathers.
“One was a female suit and one had a custom-made bum patch on it. That’s when it gets even more expensive. I’m an avid motorcyclist but that does not stop me sorting out priorities in life.”
Bush was selling lots of stuff on Facebook market place prior to his arrest – a mortuary fridge, hearses, a Land Rover and stock cars, a horse box, motor cycles and trial bikes.
Another of his victims, Jayne Rimmington whose mum was one of the bodies stored at Legacy, summed up the cruelty of the man, who put his own desires ahead of everything.
“He stood there smiling, handing me the box, when she was still laying there, rotting away! It’s a purely evil thing to do. I know a body is only a vessel and the spirit is gone, but she is still my mum. They were the hands I held and the face I kissed. He betrayed her and he betrayed our trust.“
Before making the defence submissions for Bush, his counsel, Richard Wright KC, insisted they do not wish to “minimise” what he had done.
He told the court there are demands for answers, and said: “There’s no doubt his priority was not his customers or their loved ones. That lack of priority may be the best explanation that there is. In other words that he prioritised himself, his family and his circumstances over those who entrusted their deceased to his care.”
“That may sound callous, but that is perhaps the most sensible explanation there is in his case,” Mr Wright added. He described the “horror and the grief” the court had heard and added: “Robert Bush has listened to every statement being read, and he has heard witness after witness castigate his character and pour out their understandable pain and outrage, all rightly directed at him… he has heard, therefore, the human cost of what he has done.”
Mr Wright said Bush has “lost his good name” and has been “treated – quite understandably – as a pariah, hated and despited”, adding: “And all of that is his fault.” About Bush’s family, the defence lawyer said: “His offending has devastated their lievs as well as those of his victims.”
“He said he apologises for the deception, the indignity and the infliction of a lot of trauma,” Mr Wright told the court. Red-faced Bush listened with his head bowed as the submissions were made on his behalf and at one point bowed down his face could not be seen.
“He accepts entirely that this case is not simply about money. It is about the families that placed their trust in him in moments of profound grief,” Mr Wright said. But Mr Wright urged the court to “retain perspective”, pointing out the figure of 25 years by the prosecution is the starting point for rape and manslaughter.
