Funeral fraudster receives seven-year prison term

PC Daniel Hart said Mark Kerbey "preyed on the vulnerable"

A man who deceived a grieving family into paying for a funeral which never took place has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Mark Kerbey, from Station Road in Westcliff-on-Sea, took £2,600 from the victims to arrange the service, even though he had been banned from organising funerals in the area.

The congregation arrived at Basildon Crematorium on 21 February 2020, to discover that no funeral had been arranged, Essex Police said.

Kerbey, 62, who had previous convictions for funeral fraud, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday after being found guilty in March.

'Blamed others'

The victim's husband died at Southend Hospital in January 2020, and she paid Kerbey for the funeral under the business "Trinity Funeral Home" - not realising that it was banned from using the facilities at Basildon Crematorium and Southend cemetery.

Essex Police said Kerbey's attempts to book the crematorium had been refused, but the night before the funeral he visited the family and presented them with an order of service.

When the congregation turned up to find no service had been booked, Kerbey tried to blame others and invited the family to his own funeral home.

He also sent a limousine to pick up the family which was prepared for a child's birthday party.

When the mourners arrived, they found it was a small room and much of the group had to wait outside.

Essex Police said the 20-minute service "bore no relation" to the man who had died.

Mark Kerbey, pictured in 2018, had a string of previous convictions for fraud

The family then had to pay an extra £700 to Kerbey for the body to be released into the care of a new funeral service.

When the victim's husband was finally laid to rest on 17 March 2020, no family were present due to the money they had already paid out.

Kerbey was jailed for seven years and three months for fraud and perverting the course of justice.

PC Daniel Hart, who co-led the investigation, said: "Kerbey preyed on vulnerable, grieving victims and promised them tailored and respectful funeral services for their loved one, which he knew they would never be able to deliver.

"His actions are despicable, dishonest and disrespectful and I am glad today that those who were sadly engulfed in the web of lies finally have justice."

His colleague PC Leigh Stevenson re-scheduled her retirement in order to bring the case to court and "seek justice for the victims".

A second man was charged in relation to these offences but was found not guilty of fraud by false representation.