‘Everybody who attended Alan’s funeral was given a long stem rose with a card and a pen to write a message to Alan on. These were to be sent with him when he was cremated. I will never know what happened to them’
Alan Chearman
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.
The worst thing for me is knowing that he knowingly handed my daughter someone’s else’s ashes and him having Alan, not cremated all the time. That he is still not with us and that we scattered someone else’s ashes with my son.
Never in a million years would I ever have let Robert Bush take my husband on a 30-mile journey believing he was going to Chanterlands Avenue. Not being with him when he was taken to the Crematorium. Not knowing where all the flowers and messages went.
I am very angry. I cannot explain how unhappy this has made me and my daughter. Everybody who attended Alan’s funeral was given a long stem rose with a card and a pen to write a message to Alan on. These were to be sent with him when he was cremated. I will never know what happened to them.
I would like to say to Robert Bush: You told me that I could have my husband cremated at Chanterlands Avenue but unfortunately the small chapel was unavailable for several weeks. You suggested we held the service in your premises and I stupidly agreed.
You were supposed to take him to be cremated that same day. I felt so bad allowing my husband of 42 years to go to be cremated alone that I left the wake and sat in the car park at Chants Ave Crematorium awaiting his arrival. I watched as people left and locked up.
I rang you the next morning. You must remember my call. You told me that there had been a hitch and that Alan had been cremated early that morning. This was another one of your lies.
Not only are Alan’s ashes not with his son as they should be, but a stranger’s ashes are there instead. You fooled a lot of people in Hull with your mild manner, when in fact you are a cruel con man.
You used people’s grief to fund your lifestyle. How on earth could you go away and leave those people behind? The horror that other people had to deal with. I feel so very sorry for these people that were faced with this dreadful task.
To the unknown family of the person whose ashes I was given, I would like them to know they were scattered with love and covered with yellow roses.
Shelley Chearman