Fraudulent undertaker stole £15k with bogus funeral plans Crook even stole charity donation
AFRAUDULENT undertaker has been jailed after stealing charity donations from funeral services and offering bogus plans.
Andrew Baker – who had a sideline as a rock drummer – was snared after fleecing families out of £15,000 through funeral plans that never materialised – and stealing £180 left by mourners for the Air Ambulance and the Police Benevolent Fund.
The former drummer with rock group Stiff Upper Lip was jailed at Warwick Crown Court for a separate matter – the theft of £450 he had been paid to collect a Jeep from abroad.
But that crime put him in breach of a 21-month suspended sentence imposed in September 2014 for his funeral scams. Baker, aged 54, from Pebworth, Warwickshire, was handed a one-month sentence for stealing the car cash.
Judge Andrew Lockhart QC sentenced the rogue businessman to a further nine months for the suspended matters of theft, fraud and retaining wrongful credit.
Baker traded as Cotswold Funeral Services in Stow-on-the-Wold from 2009. He closed the business, then relaunched as Honeybourne Funeral Services in Honeybourne, Worcestershire.
Police became so concerned by Baker’s sharp practices that they took the unusual step of naming him in connection with their indepth fraud probe before he had even been charged.
In 2013, the West Mercia force urged members of the public who felt they had been conned to come forward following complaints that bereaved customers had forked out thousands of pounds for funeral plans, then discovered none of the promised services had been put in place. At the time, Detective Inspector Andy Price of South Worcestershire CID said: “We have taken the unusual step of naming Mr Baker and his companies. At this point he has been arrested to reduce the chance of a family of a recently deceased person suffering further distress because of any criminality that may have taken place.
“We advise anyone who has taken out a funeral plan with Mr Baker, Cotswold Funeral Services or Honeybourne Funeral Services, to check that everything is as it should be. If you have any concerns, please contact West Mercia Police.”
It was not collar was felt.
At Worcester Crown Court on September 5, 2014, he received the suspended sentence for five counts of making false representations to make gain, two counts of retaining wrongful credit and three of theft. He was also ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
In January 2015, the Government’s Insolvency Service announced Baker had been disqualified from acting as a director for eight years for selling funeral plans without authority, and failing to safeguard the cash.
The service’s investigation found long before Baker’s Baker had sold plans to at least four elderly customers without the power to do so. The combined cash involved was at least £10,000.
Robert Clarke, Head of Insolvency Investigations North, at the Insolvency Service, said: “When directors of a company do not comply with legislation that is designed to protect customers, and avoidable losses result, the Insolvency Service will fully investigate the circumstances and take action where appropriate.
“In this case, a number of elderly customers have been left out of pocket thanks to Mr Baker’s disregard of protective legislation and it is appropriate that his disqualification is for a significant period of time.”
But Baker spread his wings far beyond his Cotswolds base, leaving in his wake a similar trail of disappointment.
Richard Fearnley, a Dewsburybased funeral director, said: “This is the idiot who conducted a funeral in West Yorkshire. He contacted me out of the blue to hire a fleet of vehicles, being the local funeral director to where the funeral took place.
“Of course, the cheque bounced and he failed to pay all the local fees at the parish church, leaving them hundreds of pounds out of pocket for having the misfortune of dealing with him. He obviously kept all the fees the family had paid to him.”
A representative for WJ Wright Funeral Directors, in Baker’s old haunt of Stow-on-the Wold, said: “That man was the scourge of my life for the first two years I was here. He muddied the waters for every funeral director in the area. Every time I tried something I was mistrusted. I’ve never been in that position before.
“He’s been a very naughty boy and, to be honest, none of us could understand why he didn’t go down the first time.”
That man was the scourge of my life for the first two years I was here. He muddied the waters for every funeral director in the area WJ Wright Funeral Directors