Barry Stevenson: Funeral Director jailed for 33 months for fraud worth thousands of £s

Barry Stevenson pleaded guilty when he appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in July.

He returned to court this week for sentencing, and was told there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.

Stevenson, 40, was jailed for 33 months when he appeared before Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane.

Stevenson had admitted selling fake prepaid funeral care packages from branches of Stevenson Funeral Directors in Fife.

He ran his scam at offices including Kirkcaldy, Cardenden, Rosyth, and Cowdenbeath and elsewhere, between 2013 and 2019.

A police investigation was launched following a complaint in September 2019.

As part of the investigation, officers acting under warrant, searched premises run by the business.

It was revealed on Fifetoday.co.uk that an investigation was under way into the company in October, 2019.

One insider told the Fife Free Press that Stevenson was selling funeral plans worth thousands of pounds, and the trustee Avalon – the company whose plans buyers thought that they were paying for – had no knowledge of it.

Officers seized a significant amount of documentation, dating back to 2015, which showed that paperwork had not been processed correctly.

More than 60 people had paid in advance for funeral plans, however, due to the fraud, the majority of them have been left thousands of pounds out of pocket with no active policy in place.

In November 2019, officers arrested Barry Stevenson and following enquiries he was charged.

Detective Constable Gillian McEwan said: “What Stevenson did is a complete betrayal of trust.

“It has been an incredibly stressful time for the people involved.

“Despite believing they had paid for their funeral arrangements, thereby relieving the financial burden from their families, they have been left in the lurch, with no policy, no money and no funds to buy a new policy.

“I hope that seeing Stevenson being held to account for his crimes can offer them some sort of solace.”