Sentencing date set for funeral director who stole £4,000 from mourners' donations
A funeral director who stole nearly £4,000 donated in charity collection tins by mourners will be sentenced next month.
Adrian Satterly, 45, of Cleobury Funeral Directors, admitted 15 counts of theft at an earlier hearing.
The thefts related to the funerals of 11 people held between March 2016 and May 2019.
The money he confessed to police to taking amounted to £3,989 should have been paid to charities including Severn Hospice, Midlands Air Ambulance, Four Oaks Care Home in Ludlow; Cleobury Medical Centre, District Nurses at Ludlow Hospital and Hereford Hospital. Cleobury Mortimer Scouting Group, St John’s Church, in Wolverley; Parkinson’s UK, Alzheimer’s Society, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, Dementia UK, and Water Aid.
Nicholas Berry, prosecuting, told Shrewsbury Crown Court on Thursday that Satterly pleaded guilty on the basis that he did not intend to steal until the "opportunity arose" and he then "consciously and deliberately" held on to the cash.
Stephen Scully, defending, said: "He accepts that when he was made aware that certain monies had not been paid he either did nothing about it or did not forward them at the earliest time practicable."
Satterly, who was excused attending from the hearing, will be sentenced on November 11.
