Euro Funeral Services apologises for body mix up in Sydney’s west

A funeral director has choked back tears while apologising for a mistaken body mix-up at an open-coffin service in Sydney’s west.

Euro Funeral Services in Roselands.

A funeral director has choked back tears while apologising for the trauma he caused two families by placing the wrong bodies in two coffins.

Screams echoed through St Euphemia Greek Orthodox Church in Bankstown after one of the families opened the casket to find the wrong person.

Euro Funeral Services director Spiro Haralambous.

Their relative had already been buried by another family at Rookwood Cemetery during a different service at Belmore.

Euro Funeral Services Principal Spiro Haralambous said it was a complete accident.

“If I could turn back time, naturally I would. I’m extremely apologetic for what has been inflicted on them (the families),” he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

“I wouldn’t want this to happen to me. It was an error. Among the many thousands of funerals we have done this was an error and now the family are traumatised due to us”.

“We are guilty as charged at the end of the day and I am so sorry.”

He added, his staff were devastated by the mistake.

The mix up has been traumatic for the families involved.

“When I went back into the office (after realising the mistake). One of the girls was crying, I didn’t know who to comfort – whether it be my business partner and wife, the girls who arranged the funeral, the girls that did the back end admin – let alone the staff that were at the funeral,” he said.

Both families had organised funerals through Euro Funeral Services for two men who had passed away on the same day.

Funeral employees had accidentally placed the wrong lid on the wrong coffin and only checked the date of death rather than the person’s name – which led to the mix up.

The Euro Funeral Services Facebook page has since been deleted.