UK SFO opens criminal probe into collapsed funeral care provider

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The UK Serious Fraud Office has opened an investigation into collapsed funeral plan provider Safe Hands Plans Limited over suspicions of fraud, marking the first formal probe under the agency’s new director.

The SFO is investigating Safe Hands and its parent company SHP Capital Holdings Limited after their funeral scheme went into administration last year with an estimated £70.6mn in outstanding claims from creditors, the prosecutor said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company marketed pre-paid funeral plans costing as much as £4,000 and about 46,000 customers had invested in the scheme before Safe Hands collapsed, according to the SFO.

“Thousands of individuals from all corners of the UK lost peace and security after being sold a product on the basis it would help reduce the burden on their loved ones upon their death”, SFO director Nick Ephgrave said in a statement.

Safe Hands went into administration in March 2022 after failing to secure authorisation to continue operating from the Financial Conduct Authority. The SFO has sent requests for information to stockbrokers and financial institutions for its investigation, following similar requests made to UK banks and potential witnesses by the agency last month.

The investigation is the first formal criminal probe to be announced since Ephgrave took up the SFO’s helm last month. A former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, Ephgrave is the first non-lawyer to run the prosecutor in its 35-year history and his tenure will be watched closely to see how his strategy may differ from predecessors.

At a conference for white collar prosecutors and defence lawyers this week, one of the SFO’s division heads said Ephgrave was looking to do “more cases” and “fast”. Sara Chouraqui, the agency’s joint head of fraud, bribery and corruption, also said the director intended to increase the number of SFO permanent staff by up to a third.

SFO cases under Ephgrave’s predecessor, Lisa Osofsky — a dual US-UK citizen who previously worked at Goldman Sachs and the FBI — halved to about 35. The agency’s reputation took a hit at the end of her tenure with the closure of two long-running investigations into miners Rio Tinto and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation.

The SFO’s most high-profile cases currently include a bribery investigation into individuals at Glencore, with charging decisions expected in the next few months. The company pleaded guilty last year and was ordered to pay £280mn.

The agency is also prosecuting four individuals in relation to collapsed café chain Patisserie Valerie. The defendants appeared in court for the first time yesterday.