About a year ago, the Central Ohio funeral industry was shaken by a pair of fraud and theft investigations that closed one funeral home, and sent two funeral directors to prison.

Now it’s spread to Canada, apparently.

I supposed that’s not correct. It’s not a disease that can be spread. It’s just…what? Bad morals? Poor upbringing? That’s not a fair thing to say, as we don’t know anything about the parenting involved.

And the issue of theft and fraud in the funeral industry isn’t uncommon, unfortunately. An Alabama funeral director was recently arrested as well.

What can be done to prevent such crimes? Probably not much, sadly. The funds involved are typically held in trust by the funeral home, and the customers are relying on the integrity of the funeral home and its staff. Short of eliminating the trust option from pre-paid funeral contracts, I’m not certain anything can be done.