The bosses of a funeral directors left a man’s decomposing body in an uncooled mortuary room with water dripping down the walls, a jury has heard.
Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell, who ran Elkin and Bell Funerals in Gosport, Hampshire, also failed to buy a coffin for the man, though in his lifetime he had made careful arrangements for his funeral, the court heard.
Elkin, 49, and Bell, 42, are accused of preventing lawful burial of a dead body, causing a public nuisance and fraud.
Opening the case against the pair at Portsmouth crown court, Lesley Bates KC told the jury that the bodies of two elderly men were found by high court enforcement agents tasked with repossessing the premises because of unpaid rent and debts.
Bates said: “They felt immediate concern at the circumstances in which the bodies were being kept. Water was coming in through a leak in the roof of the mortuary room, it was running down the walls.
“The room was not refrigerated, the temperature within the mortuary room was no different to elsewhere in the premises.”
Bates said that the bodies were those of William Mitchell, 87, and another man. The prosecutor claimed Mitchell’s body “showed obvious signs of decomposition”.
The court heard that Mitchell’s remains had allegedly been in the mortuary room for 36 days. Elkin allegedly told police that the cremation had not taken place because they had not received payment.
But Bates told the jury that Mitchell had taken out a funeral plan and the defendants had been paid £2,040 for the cremation. They had not even ordered a coffin for him and Bates said Mitchell’s family “were incredulous” when told by police that his body had not been cremated, the court heard.
The prosecutor said: “In any properly managed firm of undertakers, there was no good reason why the cremation of the body of William Mitchell should have been subject to any undue delay.
“During his life, William Mitchell himself had put in place the arrangements to ensure things would be done exactly as they should be.”
Bates said that the funeral directors had been insolvent “almost since it began in 2019”. She said that the company owed £13,440 in rent arrears and £8,567 for electricity.
The defendants deny intentionally causing public nuisance, preventing lawful burial of a dead body and carrying on a business fraudulently.
Elkins also denies a charge of forgery relating to a certificate purporting to be from the National Association of Funeral Directors and a charge of using a false instrument – namely the certificate.
The trial continues.
