'I caught my fraudster funeral director boss'

A whistle-blower has told the BBC how she confronted her fraudster boss over scamming dozens of vulnerable people out of their life savings.

Barry Stevenson-Hamilton was jailed for 33 months for tricking 49 customers into signing up for pre-paid funeral plans which did not exist.

The 40-year-old Fife funeral director failed to enter the money into trusts and pocketed £130,000 himself.

The scandal came to light when employee Sarah Yorke raised the alarm.

She went to the police after spending weeks secretly collating evidence by scanning documents in the office before confronting Stevenson-Hamilton in the Rosyth branch of the business.

"He didn't respond with apologies or any sort of explanation," she said.

"He took some plans with him, put the other ones in the shredder and left the office."

Stevenson-Hamilton had scooped the Funeral Director of the Year prize at the Scottish Funeral Awards in 2019.

Two months later police raided his Fife offices and arrested him for defrauding dozens of customers.

Ms Yorke raised the alarm after thinking something was not quite right.

She began to go through the funeral plans in alphabetical order and contacting the funeral plan provider.

On each occasion she was told the person did not have a plan.

She told the BBC: "Barry's downfall was the fact he had employed someone with experience.

"The other people who he had employed were just off the street, they didn't have any knowledge of what was the correct way to do things."

Stevenson-Hamilton's oldest victim is thought to be Betsy MacRae, who was 99 when she was scammed out of £5,000 for funeral plans covering herself and her 80-year-old daughter.

Her family told the BBC how she was "devastated" to learn the money she had saved was gone.

Betsy's granddaughter, Claire Beaton, who has power of attorney, said: "What a despicable thing for somebody to do.

"When I broke the news to her it was particularly hard as she had just heard her daughter had been diagnosed with terminal cancer."

When Betsy's daughter passed away, the family had to pay for a funeral from scratch.

Ms Beaton said: "It is so unjust. It is very upsetting. He will never understand the economic or emotional impact of what he has done to us and to so many others."

Another elderly couple told BBC Scotland about the moment detectives knocked on their door late one evening to break the news they had been duped out of £6,900.

Sheila Baines, 74, from Inverkeithing, signed herself and her 80-year-old husband up for, what they believed, was a funeral plan with Stevenson-Hamilton in 2018.

Ms Baines said: "The older you get you just want everything to be sorted for your kids. We have a boy and girl and we just wanted everything fixed."

She said police arrived at her home and requested to see the plans she had bought.

"He said 'they are fake. They are worth nothing'."

Ms Baines said she was "stunned".

"I was very angry," she said. "After the police went away I actually broke down in tears".

Another victim, Susan Mitchell, described paying Stevenson-Hamilton about £5,000 for her 93-year-old mother's funeral.

Although Ms Mitchell had not taken out a pre-paid plan, she was still lured to transfer the funds directly to the fraudster rather than his business.

She said: "He made a fool of me. I was disgusted as he was on Facebook going on cruises with our money.

"It is living with me. If I think about my mum's death and her funeral then I think of him. I have suffered from depression for years but this has not helped."

The funeral plan market was reformed this summer meaning a provider must be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

It means from July 2022 onwards, if a funeral plan provider does not meet the requirements set by the FCA, they will no longer be allowed to sell plans or carry out funerals.

It is designed to give consumers far greater protection than previously.

James Daley, the managing director of consumer group Fairer Finance, said some firms failed to meet the new regulatory standards and have since gone bust.

The most high-profile case is the collapse of the company SafeHands, which has left more than 40,000 customers out of pocket.

Mr Daley said: "Unfortunately if you bought a pre-paid funeral plan before 29 July there isn't any compensation scheme. If there was some money left then it will be returned to customers.

"Going forward people can buy these plans with confidence but unfortunately those people who bought plans before July do stand to lose some of all of their money."

He said: "There are over a million people who have these pre-paid plans and, of course, most are with big firms who are well-funded and were doing the right thing and people will get those funerals that they paid for.

"But, unfortunately there were a small minority of firms that were not acting responsibly and were unable to meet the regulation requirements and so they have gone bust and those customers stand to lose a lot of money."

The FCA has published a list detailing which firms are and are not allowed to officially operate in the market.

Police Scotland, who investigated the funeral fraud in Fife, condemned Stevenson-Hamilton's criminal actions.

Det Con Gillian McEwan said: "What Stevenson did is a complete betrayal of trust. It has been an incredibly stressful time for the people involved.

"Despite believing they had paid for their funeral arrangements, thereby relieving the financial burden from their families, they have been left in the lurch, with no policy, no money and no funds to buy a new policy."

Suspected fraud and any other financial crime should be reported to Police Scotland via 101. More information here.

Being scammed can take a huge toll on mental health. SAMH and Victim Support Scotland can provide confidential support.