Funeral Director Accused Of Misappropriating $296,000 From Clients Over 17 Years

The funeral director charged in April with defrauding the federal disability program now faces more charges that he misappropriated nearly $300,000 from 54 clients who had paid to prearrange funerals over 17 years.

Detectives filed an arrest warrant on charges of deceptive business practices, receiving stolen property, as well identity theft and forgery against David Wayne Faust, 52, of Hulmeville, Monday.

According to the Bucks County Detectives, Faust, as director of the Faust Funeral Home on Bellevue Avenue in Hulmeville, misappropriated $296,853 from 54 clients who paid to prearrange funerals between 1999 and 2016. Faust is also accused of forging a death certificate in order to withdraw one woman’s funeral prearrangement money, totaling more than $8,700, without her knowledge. The woman is still alive and had no idea she was listed as deceased, according to a criminal complaint filed by Bucks County Detectives.

Faust did not report the customers’ payments that were meant for an escrow account to the state and co-mingled them in various banks and credit unions, authorities said.

The additional charges come after Faust was charged earlier this year with allegedly forging doctors’ signatures on death certificates and fraudulently receiving disability benefits. His preliminary hearing in the case is set for later this month.

In May, shortly after Faust’s arrest, detectives received several phone calls from clients inquiring the status of pre-arranged funerals for which funds were given to the funeral home for services not yet provided. Those calls prompted a further investigation by investigators.

Faust, who is currently free on $2,500 unsecured bail, has not yet been arraigned on the new counts but is expected to turn himself in to authorities, according to Attorney Jeffrey Allen Sigman.

The forgeries first were reported to state authorities last August before being passed along to the detectives working for the district attorney’s office. A local registrar reported that she received a death certificate with the physician’s name misspelled and a signature not matching previous submissions, according to court papers.

A search warrant was executed by detectives in September at the funeral home and evidence was collected for review.

Detectives wrote in documents that 38 cremations were conducted by the funeral home without proper permits from the county, totaling $950 in unpaid fees. Among them, 14 clients were reportedly billed for permits that were not received and two were over billed.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.