Two charged after collapse of funeral firm Safe Hands, which affected 46,000 people & more related News Here

Two people have been charged after the collapse of a pre-paid funeral firm left thousands out of pocket.

When Safe Hands Plans Ltd collapsed and went into administration in 2022, around 46,000 customers lost thousands of pounds.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has charged two men – Richard Wells and Neil Debenham – with conspiracy to commit fraud. It said Wells was a former director of SHP Capital Holdings Ltd – Safe Hands’ parent company – and described Debenham as a “fellow senior executive”.

Wells and Debenham are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 5.

The SFO said the charges against Wales, 39, who lives in Spain, and Debenham, 43, from Norwich, were an “important step” in its investigation.

Operations director Emma Luxton said planholders were left “exposed, out of pocket and unsure about their funeral arrangements”.

From July 2022, pre-paid funeral providers will need approval to operate from the Financial Conduct Authority.

Safe Hands was one of dozens of companies previously operating in the unregulated sector, and collapsed just four months before the measures were introduced.

Safe Hands’ administrators, FRP Advisory, initially said scheme holders could receive repayments of between 8.5p and 12.5p for every pound lost by June 2025.

But after a six-month delay, the amount paid to those affected by the funeral firm’s collapse proved too low – around 4p for every pound.

Scheme holders are owed a total of an estimated £70.6 million.

They include Denis Hudson, from Derby, who paid almost £2,500 for the Safe Hands scheme after seeing a TV advert in 2019, and was given a check for less than £100 by administrators last year.

He said, “That was my savings. I gave it away in good faith. I really thought it was in good hands with what it said on the tin.”

Hudson told the BBC that she might “frame” the check for £96.50, using it as a reminder to keep fighting.

In 2017, Sandy and David Beattie, from Bingham, Nottinghamshire, paid £3,395 to Safe Hands to cover the funeral costs of their first person who died.

Sandy said she felt “anger, despair, hopelessness” when the company collapsed.

Amy Geary, an NHS worker from Anstey, Leicestershire, paid £3,000 to Safe Hands in 2017.

Geary said: “Other people thought I was young [to be planning my funeral]. I’m very organized, and I didn’t want someone else to do the job when I wasn’t here.

“It’s sad that you’re trying to plan something and it’s taken away from you.”