State Board Suspends License Of Funeral Home Director Facing Criminal Charges

NORTH-CENTRAL CT — The owner of four funeral homes in north-central Connecticut who is accused of embezzling more than $80,000 from elderly clients has had his license suspended by the Board of Examiners of Embalmers and Funeral Directors.

At a hearing Friday, the board voted that the license of Philip M. Pietras "to practice as an embalmer in the State of Connecticut is hereby summarily suspended pending a final determination by the Board of Examiners of Embalmers and Funeral Directors regarding the allegations contained in the Statement of Charges," according to the decision dated Tuesday, May 13, which is in the public records of the Connecticut Department of Health.

The next hearing is slated for Wednesday, May 21 at 9:30 a.m., and may be accessed by the public via Microsoft Teams.

Pietras, 51, a Coventry resident, owns Bassinger & Dowd Funeral Home in East Windsor, Burke-Fortin Funeral Home in the Rockville section of Vernon, Tolland Memorial Funeral Home and Coventry-Pietras Funeral Home.

He turned himself in at the state police barracks in Colchester April 6 after learning of a warrant for his arrest. He was charged with first-degree larceny, a Class B felony, and was released after posting 7 percent of a $50,000 cash bond.

State police began an investigation last October, which determined Pietras was inappropriately using funds for himself that were given by the victims to his business. It was concluded Pietras had taken more than $81,000 of funds that victims provided to the business, state police said.

According to a heavily-redacted affidavit supporting Pietras' arrest, eight clients had opened pre-payment funeral and burial accounts with the funeral homes, with the purpose of opening a trust account via an escrow agent. The accounts accrue interest over time.

A service which provides assistance to individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities noticed a discrepancy involving a client payment to Pietras, in which a check was submitted to the funeral home and cleared by the bank, but was never deposited into the trust account. Investigation revealed "eight clients had substantial differences between the amount of money invested, and what was present in their accounts, to include several clients who Pietras Funeral Home never opened accounts for," according to the affidavit.

In total, $81,300 was missing from clients' accounts, ranging from $4,500 to $15,700, according to the affidavit.

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A considerable amount of personal expenditures were found across several of Pietras' accounts, including destinations typically associated with gambling, including Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Az., Clearwater, Fla. and Springfield, Mass. A number of charges for restaurant and shopping ventures across Connecticut were also revealed, according to the affidavit.