AN undertaker who 'disappeared' without returning the ashes of a man's father, has contacted the Citizen, telling of his sorrow at the distress he has caused.

In an emotional interview, Steven Poole revealed the reason behind his 'disappearance' and apologised to Mick Sumner, the man who feared the remains of his father, George, were lost forever.

Mr Poole, who runs Steven Poole Funeral Directors in Plungington Road, Preston, 'vanished' without trace eight weeks ago, just as Mick was preparing to make arrangements to lay the ashes of his father to rest at St Michael's Church graveyard, in Ashton.

After reading last week's Citizen, Mr Poole immediately returned the ashes to the Sumner family, who are finally planning to lay them to rest at long last.

The self-employed undertaker claims he was forced to stop work due to ill health, a situation which left several grieving families in the lurch. He said: "I have been ill for the past few weeks and that forced me to close.

"I hope people appreciate that any upset that has been caused as a result of this was not intentional. It was beyond my control."

He added: "I am sorry for any upset this has caused but it was beyond my control. I can appreciate their concerns but there was nothing untoward going on.

"As soon as I heard about Mick I went and collected the ashes from my office, where they are kept in a safe room, and returned them to the Sumners."

Mick, of De Lacey Street, Ashton, is just pleased to get the ashes back. He said: "We couldn't believe it when we got them back.

"We genuinely thought we would never see my father's ashes again. We had spent two months doing all we could to find him but we just couldn't track him down."

Mr Poole has also promised to process donations from funerals which were supposed to go to charity.

Deepdale woman Janet Mather contacted the Citizen to say £95 of donations given to Steven Poole to pass on to Guide Dogs for the Blind after the death of her mother, May Grimes, had yet to reach the blind organisation. She said: "It has caused us a lot of heartache.

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