Richard Sage

Currently going by the name Mark Kerbey, we have news about Richard Sage, serial fraudster notorious to readers of this blog.

For more than three decades, this gentleman has been defrauding individuals and organisations, resulting in more than 40 counts of fraud and a number of stretches in prison.

At Basildon Crown Court some four years ago, his ‘several severe life-threatening conditions’ and ‘bleak future because of coronary heart disease’ resulted in his most recent jail sentence being suspended for two years. This conviction resulted from his defrauding a vulnerable elderly couple, who had paid him £3,000 deposit for their funeral plans.

People living in Westcliff-on-Sea, Erith or Colchester might recognise Mr Kerbey, miraculously recovered from his several severe life threatening conditions, as the funeral director involved with Trinity Funeral Homes, a company that has three branches in Essex and offers ‘Affordable funerals from £695*’

We have written an in-depth piece charting the appalling catalogue of crimes in the chequered past of Sage / Kerbey, you can read it here if you’re interested.

In the meantime, we strongly advise that nobody engages Trinity Funeral Homes without extensive research into the person you are dealing with.

Fans and followers of the egregious Richard Sage aka Mark Kerby will be pleased to know that, since his release from prison, he has been living in straitened circumstances in Westcliff-on-Sea. In case you had forgotten, he was jailed for fraud. Only after he had been banged up did it become apparent that money handed over for prepaid funerals was missing.

He has now been summoned to answer 3 charges of fraud (details not known to us) at Basildon Crown Court in a hearing slated for 4-8 December 2017.

A little bit of adversity never dimmed the spirit of our exponent of worst practice in funeral service. The world may be against him but his dreams live on. Our spy on the spot, to whom we pay thanks, informs us that he has advanced plans to open up a funeral home in Westcliff. He is currently banned from holding any directorships. We think we have the name of the person under whose flag he will fly, together with the name and the address of the premises he will occupy, but we have been unable to verify these in a watertight way so we’ll keep mum for now.

As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know.

In addition to our own back catalogue on Mr Sage/Kerby, you may be interested in this.

Reports have reached us that the infamous fraudster Richard Sage also known as Mark Kerby is due for release on 12 January 2017. His stated intention, we learn, is to return to the Southend-on-Sea area. We have not been able to verify these reports, but our source is trusted. If you don’t know who Richard Sage is, click his name in Categories below. 

Click the pic to make it bigger. Story reported in the same paper we contacted when the Southend One opened the Mary Mayer Funeral Home after escaping from Burnley. We told them to investigate and get rid of him. Isn’t that what newspapers are for? 

So far, no VO has arrived for the GFG from HMP Slammer. 

Story not yet online. 

Hat-tip JG & MS

Who is Richard Sage? Find out here. 

Dedicated followers of Richard Sage will know that he is operating out of the Mayer Funeral Home.

Invoices issued by the Mayer Funeral Home show that it is owned by Medi Call Southern Ltd, incorporated by Companies House on 07-11-2012. M-Call is – no surprises – an air ambulance business. Its SIC is given as ‘Funeral and related activities’.

Medi Call Southern operates out of a private house: 4 Bramfield Road East, Rayleigh, SS6 8RG.

Its director is named as Mr Sharon Parker. 

At Blackfriars Crown Court today:

Anyone there? All reports welcome.

Britain’s most infamous undertaker Richard Sage is awaiting trial at Blackfriars Crown Court on 28 April on a charge of fraud by false representation. He stands accused, among other things, of having posted a series of bogus adverts looking for young people to work with him. It is alleged the adverts asked for a £400 administration fee, but the promise of a job was a lie.

A little piece of Sage’s previous has been brought to our attention. This goes back to the days when Sage was operating a private ambulance service alongside his undertaking business. The story features Nigel Gardner, who runs a private ambulance service called Ambukare.

Whilst working as a driver for an undertaker’s, Sage decided to set up his own private ambulance firm. He did it convincingly too, embracing the much-revered work-sharing ethic. He would take jobs from hospitals, demand payment up front, and pass the jobs on to other companies. One of the companies was Ambukare. Gardner received a call from an unfamiliar company, Inter County, but obliged the request all the same. He then had a lengthy period of chasing payment.

The undertaker’s firm hadn’t seen Sage for some time. Nor had any of his clients. Eventually, Gardner decided to ring the police, who it turns out were looking for him too. He was wanted for various acts of fraud. Gardner’s account added another to the list.

The CID tracked him down in Spain.

“A lot of people were angry as Sage hadn’t paid a single client,” said Gardner. “I knew I wouldn’t get my money back. I was just waiting to see what the courts would do to him.”

The courts were firm, giving him several years, “which I suppose is only fair”, Gardner laughs, “as we soon found out he’d been ferrying people around in hearses!” (Source)

Incredible as it may seem, Sage is still trading as an undertaker from three branches in Essex while his business is being wound up by the Redfern Partnership in Stratford-upon-Avon.

While we hope that the judge at Blackfriars Crown Court will bring his activities to an end soon, we have to wonder if more couldn’t have been done to stop him.

Devotees of the above will be delighted to learn that he remains free and very much at large in all senses of the word. 

His trial was due to start at Blackfriars Crown Court yesterday, but he phoned in sick. Case postponed until June. 

There are times when the law looks like a sick joke. 

Update 04.12.2013: It seems that R Sage is pleading heart trouble (again). His trial has been re-scheduled for 28^th April 2014 at Blackfriars Crown Court.