Tipene Funerals director Francis Tipene addresses scandal involving undertaker Fiona Bakulich

The director of Tipene Funerals has promised to address the criminal scandal that’s rocked the business made famous by its reality television show The Casketeers.

Tipene Funerals undertaker Fiona Bakulich has been accused of placing bodies into plastic rubbish bags instead of coffins their bereaved families paid for, as well as making them pay for Covid-19 tests for those bodies, despite industry experts telling the Herald there was no such thing.

Tipene Funerals director Francis Tipene finally addressed the issue in a social media video on Thursday.

“There is an underlying issue that hasn’t been addressed yet and I know we all want to hear from us, and I assure you and let you know that my wife and I and our whānau here at Tipene Funerals will be addressing this issue in the days to come with an interview with Miriama Kamo.”

An interview with Kamo addressing the funeral homes' legal issues is likely to air on Marae’s first show of the year on TVNZ on March 23, Stuff reported.

“There we’ll lay it all out on the line for us all to hear so that the trust can be reinstalled back with the whānau here at Tipene Funerals,” Tipene said.

Bakulich, who is currently before the courts and pleaded not guilty to previous charges last November, now faces two charges of interfering with a grave or human remains, three charges of obtaining by deception sums over $1000 and nine charges of obtaining by deception sums between $500 and $1000.

Bakulich will appear again in the Auckland District Court on February 28.

Fiona Bakulich, a former Tipene Funerals undertaker based in Auckland, appears in the Auckland District Court. Photo / Michael Craig

More people could be implicated in the scandal, with police saying they cannot rule out further arrests.

Some affected families found out about the rubbish bags when Cyclone Gabrielle damaged the mausoleum in which bodies were interred at Waikumete Cemetery in Auckland.

Repairs forced the council to disinter the bodies, revealing a shocking and confronting sight for the families present.

Francis Tipene told the Herald he had “no idea” of anyone else being involved.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it, from [the Herald]," Tipene said when approached for comment on the new development.

“I’ll wait for them [police] to approach me and then we’ll go from there,” he said.

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