Many of the family members who packed the public gallery in court said the sentence was not long enough, with one saying it was “atrocious”. The details behind Bush’s widespread practice of giving out the wrong ashes are still largely unknown, and he refused to answer questions about it when asked by police. Victims have been calling for regulation of the funeral sector (Scott Heppell/PA)The court heard of several cases when Bush gave a client the wrong ashes, but collected the right ones from the crematorium as little as two days later. In his police interviews he said: “I’ve never given ashes back that weren’t ashes”, but refused to go into any further detail. Despite his debts, the court heard that Bush was “profligate” in his personal spending, and over seven years, while he was defrauding customers, he spent £42,000 on holidays and £21,000 on motorcycle racing.