The UK's biggest funeral company is launching an inquiry after it was revealed that dead bodies were being stored on top of each other like "television sets" in a warehouse.
The "shocking" practices employed by Co-operative Funeralcare were condemned by a former funeral ombudsman after he watched footage obtained for the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary.
Undercover reporters secretly filmed staff working in a so-called "hub", a warehouse situated on an industrial estate off a busy motorway. Channel 4 said the building contained a large refrigerated area where racks of bodies were stored ahead of funerals, with some corpses just centimetres apart from each other.
Professor Woodroffe said: "I had no idea, that they're treating people as if they're stacking television sets really. I'd hate to think that a member of my family would have been treated in that way. No, I find it shocking."
Corpses were found stored only centimetres apart
When families asked to see their loved ones, the body would be carted back to the funeral home, a journey of up to 30 miles, according to the documentary.
The undercover journalist reported that on one occasion, the lid was taken off a coffin as staff tried to fit four coffins into a van. It was carried out without a lid when it reached its destination, near a block of flats.
The macabre warehouse. Corpses were taken there and "stacked like televisions" according to undercover reporters
The documentary, being aired on Monday, also tells of a funeral organised by the firm that had to be halted when it was discovered that the wrong body had been brought to the crematorium.
Mandy Rowden said of the moment the funeral director stopped proceedings at Teeside Crematorium: "He just sort of pushed her back in again. I said what's he doing that for? And then the vicar came out to me and said we've got a bit of a problem.
"And she informed me that the coffin and the lady in the coffin wasn't my mum.... I just couldn't believe it."
Her mother Olwyn's coffin was then brought to the crematorium in a van. Co-operative Funeralcare waived the costs, paid compensation and disciplined staff members after the incident.
The documentary also shows another reporter working as a funeral arranger who is told they should encourage mourners to buy more expensive funerals and not to mention the cheapest package. The reporter is told by another member of staff: "You try never, ever to sell it."
A Co-operative Funeralcare spokesman said they were yet to see the programme, but added: "As the UK's leading funeral provider, The Co-operative Funeralcare is proud of the support and service it provides to bereaved families and we have a long-established reputation for delivering highly professional services.
"We are however shocked and disappointed by the information provided to us by this programme, which goes against everything we stand for.
"We do not believe that the instances shown in the programme are representative of our many caring staff. We have however, launched an immediate investigation into the programme's findings and will take any action necessary to ensure our high standards and our policy of enabling clients to make informed choices is maintained.
"We will also seek the independent views of the National Association of Funeral Directors on these issues. We will not tolerate any individual actions which undermine the professionalism and commitment shown by our staff to the bereaved on a daily basis."
Co-operative Funeralcare, which has 900 funeral homes across the UK, posted profits of £52 million last year and helped to organise more than 100,000 funerals.
: Undercover Undertaker - Channel 4 Dispatches will be screened at 8pm on Monday.