Fraudulent funeral directors who left 46 bodies to decompose in a warm mortuary for over month are jailed for four years

A pair of ‘evil and vile’ funeral directors who left 46 bodies to decompose in a warm mortuary for over a month have each been jailed for four years.

Richard Elkin, 49, and lover Hayley Bell, 42, failed to buy a coffin for an elderly man and left his decomposing body in an unrefrigerated mortuary room with water dripping down the walls. 

During a string of victim impact statements this morning, one bereaved mother who had been a friend of Bell told how she was denied the chance to hold her dead baby Albie one last time – after the defendants locked away the infant’s body in a casket.  The baby boy had died at just 11 minutes old.

Corrine Boulton said her ‘mother’s last right’ was ripped away from her by ‘deplorable’ Bell.

Elkin had earlier been ordered out of the dock at Portsmouth Crown Court after shouting at grieving relatives as they delivered their statements.

Following a trial in December, Elikin and Bell were convicted of intentionally causing a public nuisance, preventing lawful burial, and carrying on business with intent to defraud creditors. 

Elkin was additionally convicted of making and using a false instrument and possessing pepper spray. 

They were today also both disqualified from acting as directors for any company for a period of seven years. 

Sentencing, His Honour Judge James Newton-Price KC said the pair had caused ‘serious, profound and enduring distress’. 

The judge added: ‘No sentence can be a reflection of the value and the worth of the bodies neglected whilst in the care of Elkin and Bell.’ 

Elkin shouted ‘hope you’re happy’ at the public gallery as he was taken down. 

The defendants stored bodies in conditions as warm as 15C (59F), when they should have been stored at 4C (39F), the court heard – conduct the judge said was ‘designed to reduce the running costs of the business’.

Judge Newton-Price said the pair had ‘presented a false impression to Environmental Health officials by maintaining a false record of the daily temperatures’ and were guilty of a ‘profound’ breach of the trust placed in them by relatives. 

Earlier, prosecutor Lesley Bates KC said Bell and Elkin had exploited ‘the absence of regulation in their trade’ to commit ‘serious and broad-ranging’ criminal acts while running a funeral parlour together.

The court heard they left ‘visceral distress’ to the families of 46 deceased people – with some left confused about whether the ashes they received belonged to their loved ones.

During the pair’s trial, jurors heard how Bailiffs visiting Elkin and Bell Funerals over debts which had spiralled to £20,000 found bodies ‘crawling with maggots’ and with ‘fly pupae’ in the bags.

Others had ‘extensive development of mould’ and the mortuary had a ‘horrific smell of dead bodies’ while two were stored in a room without refrigeration and with water leaking through the ceiling.

One body, found on the visit in December 2023, had been left for 36 days and was by then in a badly decomposed condition.  The other was that of an elderly gentleman whose family believed he had been cremated. 

The firm in Gosport, Hampshire, had been insolvent ‘almost since it began in 2019’, jurors were told, and the business model had been so disorganised it was a case of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’.

Elkin and Bell Funerals rarely paid its bills and was ‘building up a legacy of ever-increasing and irredeemable indebtedness’. 

Between June 2022 and December 2023, dozens of bodies in the funeral directors’ care had been kept in an unrefrigerated room with many remaining there for more than 30 days.

Elkin and Bell continued providing services despite knowing their business could not meet its obligations. 

The court heard that a cooler system was too small for the mortuary, meaning that the temperature could not reach its required level – especially in the summer months.

The firm also had a certificate from the National Association of Funeral Directors in the front office – which was later found to be a forgery, the jury heard.

Ms Boulton told the court how she was denied the right to hold her baby boy for the last time because his casket was needlessly locked.

‘When Albie was born and died at 11 minutes old the first I called was Hayley’, she said.  

‘I felt like she was the most trustworthy and the best possible person to look after him on our behalf. 

‘I knew her for 23 years and the reality is I never knew her at all. 

‘I felt so comforted to know when he was in her care. I now wish he had stayed at the hospital mortuary.’

The body of Patricia Williams, who died in June 2023, was also neglected by not being stored correctly.

Her son, Jamie Williams, told the court a call to inform him of what happened had ‘halted the grieving process in its tracks’. 

He added: ‘They have exploited families when they were at their most vulnerable. They are evil and vile. They have taken away the right to grieve for my mum.’

Other relatives of deceased victims told of medical conditions, stress and counselling that they have gone through since finding out about their loved ones.

Carly Lilley, daughter of Georgina Lavin, who died aged 65 in July 2023, said: ‘It has been extremely difficult to process.

‘We did not ask to view her after the post-mortem (examination). We now question everything about the care she received. 

‘Their actions have left us with lifelong doubt and distress and a sense of betrayal.’

Sharon Kirton said that when she saw her mother, Elizabeth Kirton, she had been covered in make up to hide up the effects of the lack of care – which was also smeared on her clothes. 

Colin Marsh, son of Melvyn Marsh, added: ‘I let him down and this will haunt me for the rest of my life. 

‘I now have to think about maggots in my dad’s body. I failed him.’

Ms Bates told the court that the bodies of two elderly men were found by High Court enforcement agents who had been tasked with repossessing the premises because of unpaid rent and debts.

She said the bailiffs ‘felt immediate concern at the circumstances in which the bodies were being kept’.

She said one phoned his manager to report what they had found at the business saying: ‘I know it’s a funeral director, but it doesn’t look right.’

The prosecutor added: ‘Water was coming in through a leak in the roof of the mortuary room, it was running down the walls.

‘The room was not refrigerated, the temperature within the mortuary room was no different to elsewhere in the premises.’

Ms Bates said that the bodies were those of William Mitchell, 87, and Clive Reynolds, and added that Mr Mitchell’s body ‘showed obvious signs of decomposition’.

The police were then contacted and Elkin and Bell were arrested at their nearby address. 

The court heard that Mr Mitchell’s body remained in the mortuary room for 36 days and Elkin told police that the cremation had not taken place because they had not received payment.

But Ms Bates said that Mr Mitchell had taken out a funeral plan with Golden Charter Ltd, and the defendants had been paid £2,040 to pay for the cremation.

Ms Bates said that Mr Mitchell’s family ‘were incredulous’ when told by police that his body had not been cremated in the planned private cremation.

Mr Mitchell’s brother had not planned to attend the cremation – based on his brother’s wishes – but had gone to Portchester Crematorium to place a wreath instead.

Darren Mitchell, the deceased man’s nephew, told the court in his victim impact statement: ‘I entrusted Elkin and Bell with the family’s wishes – something that they did not have any respect or compassion for.’

Andrew Eddy, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘Today’s sentence marks an important moment — one of the first times funeral directors have been held criminally accountable for denying families a lawful and dignified burial.

‘Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell abused their position of trust, stored bodies in degrading conditions, lied to grieving relatives, and continued trading when they knew they could not meet even basic obligations.

‘Their actions were deliberate and caused deep emotional harm to dozens of families.

‘They robbed many of their one chance to say goodbye with dignity. The sentence today reflects the seriousness of that betrayal.

‘Our thoughts remain with all the families affected by the actions of Elkin and Bell. No family should ever have to face such distress, especially at a time of loss.

‘I am grateful to the families for their courage throughout this case and we hope that today brings some measure of justice.

‘The CPS will continue to work with police to ensure that those who exploit grieving families — and who deny the deceased the dignity they deserve — are held fully to account.’

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary said the defendants had in essence received money that they did not earn, as they did not carry out the required services such as booking the funeral or even purchasing a coffin.

Assistant Chief Constable Tony Rowlinson said he had been left ‘horrified’ by what the grieving families had been through. 

‘When we lose a loved one, we put our complete faith in funeral directors as trusted pillars of the community’, he said. 

‘We turn to them when we are at our most vulnerable and we rightly expect that we are treated with honesty and compassion, and that our loved ones are treated with care and dignity.

‘Elkin and Bell completely shattered the trust of those who turned to them whilst they were grieving. This is one of the worst betrayals I have ever seen in my policing career.’

He called for better regulation to prevent such a case from happening again.