A SHADY SPANISH UNDERTAKING
While our boys were liberating Iraq in the early months of 2003, a group of British war heroes who helped fight off the worldwide threat to peace during WWII were being cruelly duped by a cold-hearted Costa del Sol undertaker in the resort of Benalmadena, who ran off with more than £40,000 of their money. The ex-servicemen’s association and their families had put the cash into a special fund so that, in the event of their deaths, funeral expenses would be automatically paid rather than creating financial problems for relatives back in the UK. Now many of them face being given the serviceman’s ultimate insult – a pauper’s funeral – because the fund to pay for their burial or cremation was stolen by smooth-talking Latino undertaker Juan Lanzat Cubus.
‘These people are war heroes. It’s scandalous,’ said local ex-servicemen’s association secretary Frank Voyce, who put £1,300 of his own money into the scheme. He believes Spanish conman Cubus is an evil man. Mr Voyce, 78, originally from Bedford, encouraged 29 members each to pay between £1,300 and £1,500 into a special fund that was to cover the cost of a coffin, hearse, death certificate, cemetery fees, a funeral service, two days of cold storage and flowers. Undertaker Cubus was even contractually obliged to contact relatives back in the UK. ‘The idea was to take the pressure off our relatives back in the UK so that when we died they wouldn’t be landed with the costs,’ explained Frank, who served with the Royal Fusiliers when they helped liberate Italy in 1945.
‘It seemed a splendid scheme and Señor Cubus even came to two of our dinner dances to meet us. He was charming and we never once doubted his sincerity. He even danced with two elderly ladies who were most taken by him. I just cannot believe that someone could be so cruel.’
The funeral of Winifred Carter-Humphries, 91 and the widow of a Navy petty officer, had to be paid for by her impoverished sister because Cubus had shut down his business and disappeared without paying back the servicemen and women who’d contributed to the special funeral fund. Winny’s sister Kate Bale, 86, whose own husband, Reginald, served in the army during WWII, said, ‘It’s been a really awful time. Not only has my sister died, but I’ve had to pay out almost £2,000 for Winny’s funeral, which was virtually all my savings. I live on a £310-a-month pension. It’s going to be very difficult to survive from now on. That man is a cruel, heartless fellow for taking all our money.’
Frank only stumbled upon the con when he tried to contact Cubus after Winny Carter-Humphries was struck down by a serious stroke in 2003 and it quickly became clear that it was unlikely she would ever recover so the Legion’s special fund would have to be used after her death. Frank explained, ‘Cubus’s office phone had been cut off so I went to Malaga and was stunned to discover that his office and showroom had been shut down. When I tried to find him, his family said he’d disappeared. Then I found his brother, who told us that he wasn’t to be trusted. Alarm bells immediately started ringing.’
At the shop and office in Malaga city centre’s Calle de Comedias where Cubus ran his company Funeria Malaguena, the new tenants said that fraudster Cubus had closed down his operation in December 2002 without even providing a forwarding address. One of the tenants said, ‘Juan owes a lot of people money and we don’t even know where he has gone.’
One man, José Cascido, who used to work for Cubus, said, ‘I am not surprised to hear that Cubus has deceived these people. He is a heartless man who owes money to many people. I hate him. He never paid me my last few months of salary and I will do anything to help the British Legion. I am suing Cubus myself in the courts later this year.’
Nobody knew where Cubus had gone, or how to find him. So I decided to track him down myself…
I located the evil swindler at his luxurious £400,000 detached home in one of Malaga’s smartest suburbs. A brand-new £18,000 Volkswagen was parked in the driveway. I confronted him. Cubus shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I have nothing to hide. I will meet Señor Voyce and talk to him. There has been a misunderstanding.’ Over the following few months I checked with Frank Voyce to see if he had ever heard from Cubus. Not even a phone call was received.
Later, when I again asked Cubus if he’d pay British Legion associated members back all their cash, the dishonest Spaniard said, ‘I still have to talk to Señor Voyce. I am sure we can sort this out. I have opened another funeral company in Malaga and we will honour our obligations to the ex-servicemen.’ And so, in the middle of our confrontation, I telephoned Frank. Cubus refused to take the phone and talk to him directly, but once again promised to call him later that same day.
But Frank was not afforded the courtesy of the promised phone call. ‘I never heard a word from him. We all know what his game is, and he is nothing more than a cheap conman who ought to be ashamed of himself.’
When I visited the location where Cubus claimed he’d opened a new office, there was no sign of a funeral company in the entire building. One office worker in the small block said, ‘I’ve never heard of this man, and there has never been a funeral company here.’
Even Cubus’s parents, Juan, 68, and Encarna, 66, who live in the isolated village of Casabermeja, 20 miles north of Malaga, say they have washed their hands of their son. ‘Juan appears here sometimes but he never tells us what he is doing and we don’t even have a telephone number for him,’ explained the father.
In the village, many locals know Juan Cubus by his reputation. They remember his involvement in another undertaker’s scam, which brought him to the attention of local police back in 2000. It seems the company he ran was pretending to cremate bodies but was, in fact, sending them to another province in Spain where they were destroyed at a much lower cost, leaving him with more profit. He would then present grieving relatives with a pot of ash.
One old friend and neighbour of the family in Casabermeja said, ‘Juan is the black sheep of the family. We all knew about his scam with the bodies a couple of years ago, but to take money from these old British servicemen is even more disgusting. We hope he never shows his face around here again.’
British Legion lawyer Eleanor Smith described Cubus as a ‘classic conman’. ‘I understand that Cubus was involved with the company that pretended to cremate the bodies and then sent them to Seville where they were destroyed at a much cheaper cost to the company, giving them more profit. They simply gave the grieving relatives a pot of ash. It was a classic con which appalled many people here in Malaga.’
At the time of writing, Cubus continues to live comfortably in his luxury home, while Frank Voyce and the rest of his ex-servicemen colleagues live in dread about how they will cope with the next member’s death.