Collapsed funeral firm faces ‘adayof reckoning’

DIRECTORS OF failed funeral plan provider Safe Hands will face a “day of reckoning” to account for what happened, the Government has said.

Treasury Minister John Glen made the assurance after he faced appeals from MPs to ensure thousands of the firm’s customers would not miss out on a dignified funeral.

The company went into administration earlier this year, with its website saying: “It is uncertain that the funeral plans (of customers) will be able to be fulfilled”.

Mr Glen said: “The important thing is that we give reassurance going forward but there will be a day of reckoning for the directors of Safe Hands to account for what happened, but the administration process is what must happen first.”

He was responding to the issue raised in the House of Commons by independent MP Margaret Ferrier, who described the company as “unscrupulous” and its actions a “scam”.

She urged the Government “to find a way to make sure that these people who have lost hardearned money don’t miss out on a dignified goodbye when that time sadly comes”.

The Wakefield-based company had more than 45,000 customers when it went into administration.

The Financial Conduct Authority is due to oversee the unregulated funeral-plan market in July as part of a major overhaul of the sector.

Ms Ferrier said: “I wholeheartedly welcome the Government’s plans to bring funeral-planning services under the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority in July this year.

“The plans will hopefully protect future customers from falling victim to the scams of unscrupulous companies like Safe

Hands.” She said customers’ money had been put into a trust and then reinvested, saying it was sold as protecting customer investments.

Ms Ferrier went on: “Administrators found a significant shortfall between the value of this trust and the cost of the funeral plans it would need to finance. Seemingly what administrators found is that the trust’s assets had been wildly overvalued.

“Even more concerning was that most of the assets were actually owned by third parties.”

She added: “Reports indicate that over £60m of the trust’s reported £64m valued assets were high-risk investments based offshore.

“And if true, we are talking about fraudulent misappropriation of the trust’s assets.

“I will refrain from speculating who might have benefitted from all this, which can only be described as a scam.”