A WIDOW has finally had her husband's funeral costs reimbursed by the boss of a York finance firm which closed down last year.

Robert Holly has paid Lynda Madden back the £6,500 which she and her terminally ill husband Noel paid to Yorkshire Asset Protection (YAP) for two funeral plans early in 2013.

The Press has reported previously how Mrs Madden, of Stamford Bridge, ended up having to pay the bill for Noel's funeral when he died last summer, following the closure of the firm’s offices in New Street.

Mr Holly promised last autumn to reimburse Mrs Madden in full, saying he was arranging the suitable finance, but the money was not repaid.

But now she says she has received a cheque for the full amount which has cleared in her account.

Mr Holly said in a letter to her that he fully acknowledged the money would never repay the anguish she had suffered at a time of great personal sorrow, but hoped she understood he never intended to cause such misery.

He apologised for the length of time it had taken to refund her, saying it had been a difficult time for him financially since the firm closed and he had worked tirelessly to acquire the money for her.

Mrs Madden said she was relieved to have finally got the money back, having suspected this would never happen.

However, she had no plans to write to Mr Holly to thank him and said the firm's closure and long delay in receiving the refund had caused her huge additional stress at an already difficult time.

She also had concerns about the many other customers of YAP, many of them elderly, who had also lost out when the firm closed. She added that she intended to spend some of her refund on a legitimate funeral plan for herself.

*York trading standards department launched an investigation into YAP last autumn after receiving complaints about the firm from Mrs Madden and a number of other customers, and two people have been summonsed to court later this year for alleged offences under the Fraud Act 2006 and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.