Wily Daughter Outs ‘Funeral Crashing’ Group Who Tried To Attend Dad’s Memorial

A stunned family member has outed a bizarre group of friends, who target funerals in order to get some free food and drinks.

It’s not known exactly when this strange saga began, but we do know how it was revealed.

It came to light after BBC journalist and former Punch editor Alan Coren passed away a year ago. His daughter Victoria, who is also a writer, decided to hold an anniversary memorial for her famed dad in September, and ran an ad in various newspapers about the upcoming service, noting it was open to friends and acquaintances.

So far, everything seemed normal. But then Coren received an email warning her about a man with the unlikely name of Terence Jolley. The letter claimed the stranger liked to come to the funerals and services of people he didn’t know, in a scene that reads like a reverse version of the hit film “The Wedding Crashers.”

Sure enough, Jolley sent her a reply, telling her he’d worked with her father and planned to be at the service.

And that’s when Coren’s own journalistic instincts went to work. She began researching Jolley over the Internet and discovered he had fraud convictions on his record.

And then she found out he was believed to be the leader of a gang of people who used phony I.D.s and addresses to attend the funerals of total strangers.

It appears they simply wanted to take advantage of the free food and booze that often accompanies the aftermath of the solemn ceremonies. But this time Coren was on to them and she set up an elaborate sting to catch them in the act.

The wily woman placed another ad in a newspaper, lamenting the fact that Sir William Ormerod had suddenly passed away.

A website address listing his accomplishments and notable achievements in life was also in the announcement, along with a place to send email confirming people were coming to his last rites.

There was only one problem – Sir William was a fictional character who never existed. Coren waited for the inevitable email to arrive and not long after, it did.

Jolley wrote back saying he’d long admired Ormerod’s work in the arts and had met him in that milieu over the course of his non-existent lifetime.

Four other couples also fondly recalled their encounters with “Sir William” and said they wouldn’t miss his final farewell for the world.

An amused Coren used the evidence to ban a furious Jolley from her father’s memorial, although she did let in his friends. She noted afterwards they headed straight for the sandwiches and started eating heartily.

Jolley, who has attended at least four other funerals of the well known deceased in the past six months, wasn’t so jolly after getting caught. He insists he simply wants to attend ceremonies honouring those he admires.

Even, in some cases, if they never existed at all.

And he vows to continue the odd practice, noting there’s nothing illegal about his actions.