Keith and Maureen Greensides sadly died within days of each other
Maureen and Keith Greensides
On Friday, July 31 2026, Hull funeral director Robert Bush was jailed for 20 years.
The 48-year-old left bodies to decompose at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors’ premises in the city, gave bereaved families the ashes of other people and stole money donated from collections at funerals.The “horror” and revulsion felt by the families who had lost loved ones was revealed at Hull Crown Court during a series of powerful and harrowing victim statements during the first four days of the five-day sentencing hearing.
Over the coming weeks, we will be publishing those statements – from families who had cruelly been taken advantage of when they were at their most vulnerable. Their stories need to be told, and we will ensure that they are, for as long as it takes.
Last year I lost my mum, Maureen Greensides, and dad, Keith Thomas Greensides within a very short space of time.
My dad passed away on 24/09/23 suddenly at home due to a heart attack. Mum passed away on 10/10/23. She was admitted to Dove House Hospice in Hull for respite care from 27/09/23 until she passed away. She suffered with a complicated form of COPD and had been very poorly for some time.
My dad had always told me and my sisters that we did not need to worry about his or mum’s funeral because he had the money put aside for both in an ISA from his voluntary redundancy at work. He said that he did not want any fuss when he died. This was nice to know that at such a sad time, we would not have any extra upset having to find the money to pay for their funerals. Legacy Independent Funeral Directors was recommended to us by a friend.
We decided to use Legacy for dad’s funeral, and this went well. We were pleased with the ceremony. We lost mum on 10/10/2023 and I contacted Robert Bush to inform of this and he collected mum and took to the hessle -road>Hessle Road premise.
Mum’s service was held on 30/10/2023 and mum and dad were to be cremated together. I had been happy with the way that both my mum and dad had been treated while they were in the care of Rob at Legacy. I found Robert Bush to be a decent and caring man and seemed to go out of his way to make everything less painful for us.
I paid for both funerals using my mum and dad’s ISAs. I collected Mum and Dad’s ashes as agreed on 10/11/23 and Robert Bush handed me them. They were both in a white cardboard box with a name tag on the top.
They had a sticker saying ‘Legacy Funeral Directors” with the name, date of birth, date of passing and age typed on both. There were even serial numbers on them that were in number order. Inside the box there was like an A3 envelope containing ashes that we were led to believe were our mum and dad.
Hearing about the Police investigation into Legacy was shocking. I was very upset to hear about how he had been storing the deceased. I knew a lot of other people who had been affected in some way by this. My sister contacted the police and told them that we had funerals for mum and dad recently and that they were cremated by Rob Bush.
The police took all the details and we next heard from them on Good Friday, which was 29/03/24. The police informed us that there had been ashes recovered from Leeds Crematorium that were mum and dad. It was then that we realised that the ashes that Rob had given us could not have been theirs. The ones they found we were told were those of mum and dad.
My perspective of him changed at this point. I was empty. I had no feelings for him. I had been stood in his premise collecting my parents’ ashes and he knew that their bodies were in the back of his premises. He had the nerve to stand in front of me and give me ashes he knew full well were not theirs.
Normally you bury your parents and move on as best you can, this case is still ongoing and there are reminders all the time about what happened at Legacy. Robert Bush came across as so nice and helpful. He even used to say that when he went into his building he used to say to the deceased “morning, I hope you are all decent”. I used to think that this was quite nice and then he said he would say goodnight to them and turn off the lights.
He just came across as a good guy, so helpful, and could not do enough for you. He even said that that when he took mum and dad to /the crematorium, he would do a drive by Boyes. I thought this was such a nice touch.
He even said that during Covid when there were restrictions on the amount of people you could have, he said he would put a marquee up in a field. I cannot believe that Robert Bush gave us the wrong ashes and that he seemed to believe this was ok.
I am just so thankful that the police returned the correct ashes to us but feel sad that we may have been given some other family’s loved one’s ashes. Robert Bush is a despicable human being and must live with what he has done for the rest of his life.
I would like to know why Robert Bush thought his actions were acceptable. I just don’t care for the bloke anymore; he has no relevance in my life. I don’t know what I’d be like if I came face to face with him. I would like to know what his motivation was to commit these horrible acts. I can only think it was for financial gain.
My dad saved his redundancy money to pay for his and my mum’s funerals and expected to be looked after once they had passed with dignity. He would have expected their ashes to be returned to their family and it probably never crossed his mind that this might not be the case.
David Greensides