Fiona Bakulich is facing charges of interfering with human remains and eight counts of obtaining by deception. Photo: Lucy Xia
A former Auckland Funeral Director has been sentenced to two years and three months for interfering with human remains and obtaining money by deception.
Fiona Bakulich, a former employee of Tipene Funerals, pleaded guilty to charges in February.
The charges related to bodies disinterred at Waikumete Cemetery during flooding in 2023, and included 11 different complainants.
Court documents show in 2017 Bakulich took payment of $3000 for the cost of lining and sealing a casket with zinc, which she kept for herself.
Following cyclone Gabrielle, the casket was disinterred, revealing it had not been lined, and the deceased had instead been wrapped in plastic.
Another casket was also found to have not been lined in zinc after being disinterred.
Instead, the deceased was placed directly inside the casket without any protective covering apart from their clothes.
One charge of interfering with human remains was withdrawn.
Court documents also reveal Bakulich had charged the families of deceased placed in her care for various medical and Covid-19 related procedures that were not needed or administered.
One family was charged $7000 by Bakulich for supposed breaches of Covid-19 requirements during a funeral.
In other cases, Bakulich convinced families their deceased relatives needed Covid immunisations or treatment.
Reparations were sought of $16,902 for charging families for medical injections, treatments, and costs that were not required or administered, as well as a sum that was meant to paid to Auckland Council but never was.
The maximum sentence for obtaining more than $1000 by deception is seven years imprisonment, while the burial related charges carry a maximum two year prison sentence.
Appearing before a packed public gallery in the Auckland District Court on Friday, police prosecutor Taniela-Afu Veikune read aloud victim impact statements from the families involved, representatives from only one of which were present in court, hugely outnumbered by Bakulich's family and supporters.
Statements described Bakulich as and "opportunist", and the "epitome of soulless".
"At a time when I wasn't thinking straight, Fiona was selfishly thinking of her own financial gain," Veikune read from one statement.
"Instead of caring for us, [Bakulich] chose to trick us during such a vulnerable time," read another.
Bakulich's lawyer, Panama Le,au,anae apologised to the victims' families.
"[Bakulich] has fallen a long way down from the level of expectation that one should have expected from someone who is in the field of looking after deceased family," he said
"...It just doesn't compute as to what she's done."
Le,au,anae read out a positive letter, defending Bakulich's work as a funeral director.
"I'm not asking for a second chance, I'm just asking for a fair sentence." he said.
He was asking for a term of home detention.
"She's finished, she's toast, and the family name has been seriously tarnished by what she has done."
He said Bakulich had been pilloried in the media over the course of proceeding.
Judge Evangelos Thomas said the pain caused by Bakulich wasn't only the monetary loss to families, but the emotional impact felt also.
"You looked them so softly in the eye and stabbed them so ruthlessly in the back..." he said.
"Imagine what other families who used your services are now thinking."
He also questioned her remorse.
"A remorseful person would not have offended since 2017 until they were caught," he said.
"Where was that remorse then?"
Thomas handed down a sentence of two years and three months in prison, discounting for her guilty pleas.
Police also arrested another former funeral director in March, charged with the mishandling of burials and obtaining about $18,000 by deception in alleged offences going back to 2015.
He was granted interim name suppression and remanded on bail, expected to reappear in June.
