Grave Concerns: Episode 4 'The Funeral Swindler'
REAL
Naomi Channell
4.8 • 725 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It takes a low person to scam grieving families when they are at their most vulnerable, and there is one man who has done just that, time and time again.
This episode looks at the crimes of Mark Kerbey, also known as Richard Sage, who has committed crimes and served a series of prison sentences for scamming, stealing and traumatising people accessing his funeral services across England and Scotland.
We also hear from Ross Hickton, the managing director of Hickton Family Funeral Directors and the current CEO of SAIF - The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors, who is setting standards across the funeral industry and helping the government with the upcoming regulation.
This is Grave Concerns.
If you'd like to support the show, please see the link to my Patreon here, thank you:
https://patreon.com/REALtruecrimepodcast
To find out more about SAIF and view their members directory, please see here:
https://saif.org.uk/
If you need support, please see the organisations below who can help you:
England and Wales - https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/
Scotland - https://victimsupport.scot/
Ireland - https://www.crimevictimshelpline.ie/
Northern Ireland - https://www.victimsupportni.com/
Australia - https://victimsservices.justice.nsw.gov.au/
New Zealand - https://www.victimsupport.org.nz/
America - https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/victim-services
Canada - https://www.canada.ca/en/office-federal-ombudsperson-victims-crime/services-services.html
Baby Loss Support - https://www.sands.org.uk/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Warning, this is a true crime podcast and is not suitable for all audiences. |
| 0:05.5 | Please use discretion. |
| 0:07.5 | It takes a low person to scan those who are grieving or coming to the end of their life, |
| 0:13.2 | but it happens more often than we realise. |
| 0:17.3 | Sometimes it's overcharging an elderly widow or upselling products that you know a family who are lost in a sea of emotion don't need. |
| 0:27.7 | But there has been a man who has repeatedly come back to scam people when they are at their most vulnerable time and time again. When they're planning, their loved |
| 0:40.5 | one's funeral. I'm Naomi'm I'm |
| 0:55.0 | I'm |
| 0:57.0 | I'm Richard Sage first set up a funeral home in the 1980s, but soon after setting it up, his company went under |
| 1:30.6 | and he was arrested on suspicion of fraud. He was charged and convicted and sentenced to five |
| 1:37.3 | years in prison. When he was released in 1989, he set up Belmont Air and Road Ambulance Service, which serviced Americans |
| 1:47.2 | who were taken ill in Europe until they recovered and could return home. He made a deal with |
| 1:53.8 | St Thomas's Hospital in London. The way it was supposed to work was that Americans would use the |
| 1:59.9 | services and then reclaim the costs |
| 2:02.0 | from an insurer based in Michigan in America. But there was no insurance company in Michigan. |
| 2:09.4 | It was a fake company that Richard had convinced people was real, including the National Health |
| 2:15.8 | Service. He was eventually caught and the NHS were half a million pounds down in debt |
| 2:22.0 | because they'd paid Richard for each patient he'd cared for, |
| 2:26.4 | but of course were never able to claim the money back. |
| 2:30.7 | Richard was again charged and convicted of fraud, |
| 2:33.6 | and this time he served seven years in prison. |
| 2:37.1 | At his trial, the judge said he was, quote, a practised professional confidence trickster. |
... |
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