Business
Two charged after collapse of funeral firm Safe Hands affected 46,000 people
Getty ImagesTwo 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.”
Home sales made a small gain to start the year, but higher mortgage rates now could throw cold water on the spring season.
Existing home sales in February rose 1.7% from January to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 4.09 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were down 1.4% from February of last year.
This count represents closed sales, so deals were likely inked in December and January, when mortgage rates fell a bit and stayed solidly in a low range near 6% on the 30-year-fixed mortgage. Rates were about a full percentage point higher the year before.
“Despite the modest gain in home sales, actual housing demand remains muted relative to wage growth and job gains,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said in a release. “Wage growth is now outpacing home price growth by almost four percentage points. Mortgage rates are also measurably lower compared to a year ago.”
Yun also noted that there are over 6 million more jobs now than there were in 2019, yet home sales per year are down by 1 million.
Lower mortgage rates helped improve affordability slightly, but low inventory is still a significant headwind. There were 1.29 million units for sale at the end of February, an increase of 2.4% from January and 4.9% from February 2025. At the current sales pace, that is a 3.8-month supply, unchanged from January. A six-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyer and seller.
More sellers who delisted their homes last fall, due to slower sales and weak consumer confidence, are relisting their homes now, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage. Nearly 45,000 homes that were delisted last year were relisted for sale in January. That is the highest January figure since Redfin began tracking this metric a decade ago and represents a record 3.6% of homes that were on the market in January.
“Inventory is growing, but sluggishly,” Yun said. “If demand picks up notably in the coming months and outpaces supply growth, home prices will inevitably rise. That is why increasing supply is so important to help limit home price growth, improve housing affordability, and boost transactions.”
Tight supply, however, is keeping prices just barely higher. The median price of a home sold in February was $398,000, an increase of 0.3% year over year. Sales continue to be strongest in the highest price category, properties listed at $1 million or above. Sales were down sharply on the lowest end of the market.
It continues to take longer to sell a home, at 47 days, up from 42 days one year ago. First-time buyers represented 34% of total sales, an increase from 31% a year ago. Investors made up 16% of sales, unchanged from a year ago.
Europe’s largest carmaker said post-tax profits had dropped to their lowest level since 2016.
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