Miss Ghahhary prosecuting on behalf of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and the Crown Prosecution Service outlined to the court the 3 offences of fraud and 9 offences pursuant to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, committed by the Defendant.
‘Michael O’Brien, 59, collected £1,935 in cash and cheques left in envelopes by grieving well-wishers after funeral services – but the money never reached charities like Macmillan Cancer Support.
He pocketed £530 in cash donations and never bothered to forward the rest of the money in the form of cheques.
The money had been left in envelopes which also contained cards with heart-felt messages of support which he also failed to forward to grieving families.
O’Brien, of Woolley Lane, Hollingworth had also mis-sold a series of funeral plans to elderly people worth a total of £10,219.
Old folk keen not to burden surviving relatives had paid him up to £3,000 for their funerals once they were gone.
But the court heard none of the plans was backed by insurance and O’Brien had not been regulated as required by the Financial Conduct Authority.
It meant families didn’t realise they risked losing their money if, as happened, his business went bankrupt.
Although O’Brien never failed to provide a funeral, the money he took for funeral plans went into propping up his failing business rather than into holding accounts for his customers.
O’Brien was jailed for eight months after he admitted fraud and offences under unfair trading regulations…’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2675036/Undertaker-jailed-conning-13-000-elderly-people.html