The funeral homes where bodies are stacked in fridges

COWBOY funeral directors are disrespecting the dead in horrific fashion, a report reveals today.

Corpses have been seen stacked or wedged into fridges while bodies are embalmed on the floor, it is claimed.

The findings led for calls for the industry to be regulated for the first time.

Expert testimonies from doctors, hospice workers, coroners, embalmers and police officers were collected by researchers, who found cases of woefully inadequate ‘back-of-house’ facilities.

One reported seeing ‘cadavers stacked inside a big fridge’ and that in some cases two bodies were stored in a refrigerator space for one. A supplier of mortuary equipment said some premises were in ‘very poor condition’ and had no refrigeration facilities.

Embalmers described trying to preserve bodies left on the floor, surrounded by clutter and without proper lighting or ventilation.

One retired doctor who was interviewed for the report said: ‘Standards are better than they were but there are still occasions where the behind-the-scenes facilities are ghastly.

‘There might be flowers out the front, but then out the back there are bodies stacked up waiting to be dealt with. If people were aware of what went on in some of the more chaotic funeral homes they would be very upset. An independent inspector would force them to pull their socks up.’

Rosie Inman-Cook, of the Natural Death Centre charity, said: ‘There are some cowboys out there who just don’t have the proper facilities at all. We’ve heard horror stories that can leave families traumatised.’

Around a third of funeral directors belong to chains such as Co-operative and Dignity, which commissioned the report.

Anyone can set up as a funeral director without qualifications, equipment or facilities.

The Competition and Markets Authority, which is investigating the £2billion funeral market, said in June it would be looking at whether operators were clearly explaining prices to ‘very emotionally vulnerable’ customers.

The average cost of a funeral last year was nearly £3,800 and extras can add £2,000 to the bill. Over the past 20 years the length of time between someone dying and their funeral has jumped from fewer than ten days to more than three weeks, according to the report. This means funeral homes need proper facilities. Other complaints highlighted in the report included funeral directors showing limited empathy and focusing too much on money.

One woman in her 70s, from Manchester, said: ‘There are lots of con merchants and you are very vulnerable. It’s easy to insinuate the more you pay the more you love them.’

Around 600,000 funerals are conducted every year – a figure expected to reach 750,000 over the next 25 years. Andrew Judd of Dignity said: ‘Consumers believe that all staff are trained and that their loved ones are cared for appropriately. They are right to be alarmed to learn that there are no minimum standards or robust regulation in place to govern the sector and address instances where this is not happening.’

Paul Allcock, of the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors, said: ‘Members of our trade association abide by a strict code of practice whose aim is to protect bereaved families and raise standards.

‘Members are inspected at least once every two years. Sadly, there is no statutory obligation for a funeral director to subject themselves to such a code of conduct.

‘It is these practitioners whom we worry about.’

‘Emotionally vulnerable’