The prominent Auckland funeral home behind reality TV show The Casketeers says it reported Fiona Bakulich to police over allegations she swindled her grieving clients earlierthis year.
Police confirmed to the Herald they assessed two reports of fraud made in March and April this year, but shelved the investigation due to “insufficient evidence”.
Several families have come forward after a Herald investigation, alleging they were swindled by Bakulich.
When Herald reporters visited Bakulich’s Māngere East home on Tuesday morning, the curtains were drawn and the letterbox was overflowing.
Letters strewn on the ground were addressed to Bakulich.
Neighbours said Bakulich had lived in the home for two years, but they had not seen her for two months.
Several former customers approached the Herald after an investigation into the actions of Bakulich, who allegedly put the bodies of several prominent Auckland Samoans in plastic rubbish bags instead of the coffins their families had paid for.
One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Herald her father died suddenly in June 2023, followed by her mother in August 2023. They used Bakulich for both funerals.
She claimed Bakulich told her they required her late mum to have a “post-mortem Covid test” and they had already paid a contractor to do the test at the funeral home.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health confirmed there had never been a requirement for dead people to be tested for Covid.
The woman said she paid Bakulich $750 cash for the test and claimed grief caused her to ask no further questions.
She also handed over an additional $750 in cash to Bakulich to pay for the burial at Manukau Memorial Cemetery.
She said she was told by Bakulich the cemetery only accepted cash, but Tipene Funerals said in the police complaint a variety of payment was accepted.
Fiona Bakulich was employed as a senior funeral director at TIpene Funerals in South Auckland. Photo / Supplied
After the funeral in August last year, she said she moved on with her life until receiving an email from Auckland Council in February this year, saying she had an outstanding bill.
She contacted Bakulich, who she claimed posed as a current employee of the funeral home despite leaving months before.
“[She said] there must be some kind of mistake, that it happens all the time … she said she would talk to the people in finance.”
Communication stopped the next day, she said, which is when she approached Tipene Funerals.
It was only then that she realised just how much money she had been allegedly swindled out of.
“I just cried.”
Another woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she felt her experience with Bakulich after the sudden death of her mum was “horrible”.
When her mum died in 2017, she had never experienced such a significant loss. When she googled a celebrant, Bakulich was the first name that came up.
She also claimed Bakulich said her family had damaged the window of a neighbouring property and caused other damage to the funeral home. When they asked for proof, Bakulich refused to show any.
“We ended up just paying it ... she would call us up crying when we refused and we had too much to deal with already.”
She said she made it clear to Bakulich her family did not have a lot of money for the service and wanted to do things cost-effectively.
She said she was shocked when she saw the $15,000 price tag for the funeral and burial of her mother.
Money was the least of her worries though, she said, when she realised Bakulich had lost an original photo of her mum – her favourite one.
Francis Tipene and his wife Kaiora are the sole directors and shareholders of Tipene Funerals Ltd and starred in The Casketeers, which has been running since 2018.
Police aware of complaints
The Herald has sighted a March 2024 report to police from Tipene Funerals alleging Bakulich “fraudulently obtained cash ... for her own personal gain”.
Tipene Funerals director Francis Tipene told the Herald after Bakulich left the business, a family came forward earlier this year with concerns about unethical and fraudulent behaviour.
“Tipene Funerals again apologised unreservedly, reimbursed the family and reported it to the police,” Tipene said.
“We are truly sorry for the pain and sorrow that the actions of this former employee have caused to the families involved.
“Given the new information that has come to light, we have again raised these matters with the police and will do everything in our power to assist them with their investigation.”
Tipene said they encourage anyone with concerns about Bakulich’s behaviour to report it to police.
“Tipene Funerals has handed all information known to us to the police and we cannot comment any further.”
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton said the complaints to police “involved relatively small amounts of cash being taken from a business”.
Bolton said cash transactions were “notoriously” difficult to investigate and that police had abandoned investigations into the fraud claims due to insufficient evidence.
“This assessment is made on all available lines of inquiry set against the Solicitor-General’s guidelines for prosecution. In any investigation, police must apply these guidelines, particularly around meeting an evidential sufficiency test.
“While we appreciate this position may be frustrating for any victim, the test requires sufficient evidence to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction.
“Police will always consider new information as it comes to hand for any further appropriate action. Police do investigate fraud relating to ex-employees. These usually relate to large sums of traceable financial transactions,” Bolton said.
“Another avenue that is available for smaller debts is the Disputes Tribunal, that require a lesser burden of proof and can hear cases of financial loss up to $30,000.”
Bodies of prominent Auckland Samoans ‘treated like rubbish’
It comes after scathing allegations that Bakulich swindled other grieving clients and put their dead relatives in plastic rubbish bags instead of the coffins they had paid for.
When Cyclone Gabrielle hit last March, the public mausoleum where the bodies were interred at Auckland Council-run Waikumete Cemetery was damaged and needed repairs. The bereft families’ relatives needed to be disinterred for this to go ahead.
In mausoleums, each body is placed inside a vault. Disinterments involve removing each body from its vault and the families can be present for this.
“When the families opened up the caskets, it was just a whole other level of grief. There was just wailing and screaming,” one relative told the Herald.
The affected families were led to believe they needed to pay for zinc-lined inner coffins to go inside the normal coffins to comply with laws for mausoleums. They each paid $3000 to Bakulich for the zinc-lined coffins. Photo / Michael Craig
“How could you do this to our loved ones? You just bagged them like a piece of rubbish.”
Tipene said: “We unreservedly apologise for the distress their actions have caused the families involved. I am deeply sorry for the pain and sorrow that this has caused those affected.”
He said his “former employee” worked for Tipene Funerals as a funeral director for seven years.
“And in doing so, a huge amount of trust was placed in her, both by Tipene Funerals, myself as director and the families she was taking care of,” Tipene said.
When he first learned Bakulich “had not followed proper procedure”, Tipene said his immediate priority was to apologise to affected families “and do everything in my power to put this right”.
The Herald has made numerous attempts to contact Bakulich. Her brother Nicholas Bakulich, chairman of the Panmure-Ōtāhuhu local board in Auckland, earlier told the Herald the family had supported Fiona Bakulich through “some things”.
“It [the allegations] are between the funeral home and the families.”
Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.
