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

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

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

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

The SFO said the charges of Wells, 39, residing in Spain, and Debenham, 43, of Norwich, were a “critical step” in its investigation.

Emma Luxton, director of operations, added planholders were left “exposed, out of pocket and uncertain about their funeral arrangements”.

Pre-paid funeral plans are designed to allow people to pay for their own funeral in advance, in order to help their families financially when they die.

Since July 2022, pre-paid funeral providers have required approval to operate from the Financial Conduct Authority.

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

The administrator for Safe Hands, FRP Advisory, initially said planholders could receive repayments of between 8.5p and 12.5p for every pound they lost by June 2025.

But after a six-month delay, the amount repaid to those affected by the funeral firm collapse proved to be much less – about 4p for every pound.

Planholders are owed an estimated £70.6m in total.

Among them are Denise Hudson, from Derby, who paid nearly £2,500 for a Safe Hands plan after seeing a TV advert in 2019, and was last year given a cheque for less than £100 by administrators.

“That was my savings. I gave it in good faith. I actually thought what it said on the tin, it is in safe hands,” she said.

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

In 2017, Sandie and David Beatty, from Bingham in Nottinghamshire, paid Safe Hands £3,395 to cover the funeral costs for the first of them to die.

Sandie said they felt “angry, disappointed, sick” when the firm collapsed.

Aimee Geary, an NHS worker from Anstey in 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 organised, and I didn’t want anyone else to have a job when I’m not here.

“It’s sad that you try to plan something and it has been taken away from you.”