Funeral funds case finally ends
A dozen people pre-paid for the send-off they wanted, but when former funeral directors Darryl and Melissa Angus’ business went under, the money was all gone.
Some families had to scramble to find cash and organise a last-minute funeral. In one case, a family could not even afford to embalm their loved one.
Those 12 people ended up losing the money they handed over.
Darryl and Melissa Angus ran Omega Funeral Services and Memorials Ltd in Hutt Valley from mid-1998, until the business went into liquidation in 2005.
The long-running case has been before the district court for nearly three years, but yesterday’s sentencing was finally the end of it.
Wellington District Court judge Stephen Harrop sentenced Darryl and Melissa Angus to six months’ home detention, and Darryl Angus to 100 hours of community work.
The judge ordered both to pay reparation – Melissa $10,000 and Darryl a lump sum of $25,557 on top of payments of another $4000.
The couple entered into agreements to supply pre-paid funerals for the deaths of 12 customers. They accepted $93,000, of which $63,000 was lost.
The money was not deposited in any sort of trust account and was gone when the business folded. The clients ended up as unsecured creditors.
The judge accepted Darryl and Melissa Angus did not do this deliberately for their own benefit. But the clients would have thought the protection provided to them by a trust account gave some peace of mind.
The families had to find money on short notice instead, and as a result the quality of the funerals suffered, the judge said.
He read out a comment from one family’s victim impact statement.
‘‘We went to [another funeral service] and they gave us a really cheap funeral that Mum would have hated. We could not have afforded to embalm her, which meant some family members who had travelled to see her could not.’’
Darryl Angus had pleaded guilty to 13 charges of theft by failing to account. Melissa Angus pleaded guilty to 13 charges as a party to theft by failing to account and theft in a special relationship.
Darryl Angus’ lawyer Kevin Preston said his client was deeply remorseful. He had not taken the money and spent it on lavish holidays. He had wanted to help his community.
But a liquidators report showed the business suffered cash flow problems, and, after negative publicity about a funeral, the business just fell apart, Preston said.
Police began investigating in 2005 and took statements from the victims.
In 2007, Darryl and Melissa Angus went to Australia. They were not charged at the time.
Police advised them of the complaints and that they would begin extradition proceedings if they did not return. But the couple did not return to New Zealand until 2014.
Police charged them in March 2016, nearly 10 years after beginning the investigation.
Both pleaded not guilty initially. While awaiting trial, Darryl Angus went to America and did not turn up for several court dates. He eventually was taken into custody there as an overstayer and months later returned to New Zealand.
Darryl Angus was a funeral director for about 15 years and was an elected Wainuiomata Community Board member.
In 1999, he claimed a woman he was embalming had started bleeding, and unsuccessfully sought $1 million in damages from Hutt Valley Health and the doctor who had pronounced her dead.
He told an inquest the head of the body moved after being sprayed with disinfectant and blood had streamed from the nose, and later from her neck.