Legacy Funeral director Robert Bush logs bid to appeal 20-year sentence

A funeral director who was jailed for hoarding bodies and giving grieving relatives the wrong ashes has made an application to appeal his sentence.

Robert Bush, who ran Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, pleaded guilty to 67 separate offences including preventing a lawful and decent burial and fraud.

The investigation into Legacy was the biggest in the history of Humberside Police.

Thirty-five bodies in varying states of decomposition and half a tonne of ashes were found at his premises on Hessle Road following a report to police in March 2024.

Investigators discovered human ashes stored “chaotically”, boxes of which had begun growing mould due to the state of the building, and items belonging to the deceased strewn about haphazardly.

Among the bodies were the remains of a baby.

He was sentenced to 20 years in July 2026.

In a letter to one of the victims, Humberside Police said it had been notified by the Criminal Appeal Office at the Royal Courts of Justice that Bush had filed an application for an appeal.

It added: "We would like to reassure you that this appeal relates only to the sentence handed down and not to the conviction itself.

"Robert Bush is not challenging his conviction, and the appeal does not mean that the case is being reopened nor that evidence presented during the original proceedings is being reconsidered.

"The lodging of an appeal does not automatically mean that the sentence will be changed.

"Any decision regarding the appeal will be a matter for the courts."

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