A WEST FIFE funeral director has been charged with obtaining more than £170,000 by fraud.

Barry Stevenson-Hamilton, director of Stevenson Funeral Directors Ltd, which had premises in Rosyth, and Funeral (Care) Scotland Ltd, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old, of Old Dalkeith Road in Edinburgh, is accused of deceiving and defrauding customers over a six-year period by persuading them to buy pre-paid funeral plans with other companies and then keeping their money.

It is alleged that, between January 1, 2013, and September 12, 2019, at Stevenson Funeral Directors Ltd, Station Road in Cardenden; Queensferry Road in Rosyth; Station Road in Cowdenbeath, Links Street in Kirkcaldy and elsewhere, he formed a scheme to obtain money by fraud.

The charge reads that, whilst acting as a director of Stevenson Funeral Directors and Funeral (Care) Scotland, Stevenson-Hamilton did, by his own hand and by deceiving employees, provide false information to customers and pretend that by paying money they were buying a pre-paid funeral plan with the Avalon Trustee Company Ltd, of Wilmslow, or the Silver Clouds Later Life Planning Ltd, of Southampton.

He is accused of deceiving customers by pretending the money would be held by the two companies, producing documentation purporting to be a guarantee of the funeral plans and inducing customers to pay Stevenson Funeral Directors, when the truth was the plans were not guaranteed and the money was not deposited with Avalon or Silver Clouds.

As a result, the charge continues, customers had not purchased funeral plans and Stevenson-Hamilton did obtain £170,279 by fraud.

He has denied the charges.