A funeral care firm has been forced to pay a grieving family over £1,000 after putting their loved one’s body into a coffin that was too small, causing “deep indentations” to his skull. Co-op Funeralcare was also accused of injuring the hand of the man, referred to as Mr A, in an upheld complaint to the Financial Ombudsman that he was put in the wrong-sized coffin.

Funeral workers also told Mr A’s family that they had lost his dentures while attempting to fit his body inside the coffin, which were later found lying underneath him and reportedly offered to lie him on his side after concerns were raised about the box’s proportions. Mr A died last February and had pre-paid funeral arrangements with the Co-op, with family members not realising what had happened until they went to view his body and found his head sticking out of the coffin. On their second visit, they also noticed the damage to his head and hand.

The company, a subsidiary of the Co-operative Group, reportedly apologised and ordered a larger coffin, which arrived the day before the funeral, The Times reports.

His dentures were found under his body as he was being transferred, but it was too late for them to be reinserted, the ombudsman complaint said.

The deceased’s relatives, referred to as Mr and Mrs G, were initially handed an invoice for £1,723, which exceeded the costs of Mr A’s arranged pay plan. After they raised the issue, the bill was reduced by £545, but the pair decided to escalate their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman in the hope of waiving the costs entirely and seeking additional compensation.

Ombudsman Chris Woolaway ruled that Co-op should reimburse Mr and Mrs G £1,125 plus 8% interest, a charge calculated from the date of Mr A’s passing to that of the settlement.

“Mr and Mrs G have said how deeply upsetting it was to see that Mr A’s body had been damaged in Co-op’s care, and how they’ve been left with the memory of this,” Mr Woolaway said.

“I was sorry to read about the lasting effects this has had on Mr and Mrs G, and I want them to know they have my sympathy for what’s happened.”

Mr A’s relatives said the thought of their loved one being buried with his dentures by his side rather than in his mouth was “awful” and the ombudsman acknowledged that the ruling couldn’t appropriately compensate them because the “eligible complainant” would have been the deceased, who paid for the funeral plan.

A spokesperson for Co-op Funeralcare said: “We are committed to providing the highest standards of service and care for the loved ones of the bereaved families we serve across the nation.

“Whilst we are confident that we fulfilled the arrangements recorded in the funeral plan, regrettably, on this occasion in early 2024, we recognise that we fell short in delivering the usual high standards that we pride ourselves on, for which we sincerely apologise.

“We understand the emotional impact these failings have caused our client and their family, and we have since made process and procedural improvements to prevent such incidents from occurring again.”