Melrose Cemetery Worker Admits to Pocketing Nearly $75,000 in Burial Plot Scheme

WOBURN, MA -- A former administrator of a Melrose cemetery pleaded guilty today to pocketing nearly $75,000 in a burial plot scam.

John Hughes, 71, of Revere, pled guilty today in Middlesex Superior Court to five counts of larceny over $250 and receiving outside compensation by a municipal employee in connection with a scheme to sell unused cemetery burial plots, owned by the City of Melrose, to unsuspecting buyers.

Judge Peter Krupp sentenced Hughes to two years probation and ordered Hughes to spend the first 90 days of his probation in home detention.

Hughes was also ordered to pay $74,900 in restitution to the City of Melrose during the two year probation period.

Hughes was appointed Cemetery Administrator of the Wyoming Cemetery in Melrose in 2007.

Beginning in 2011 he began telling individuals looking to buy burial plots for later use, that they could purchase previously sold burial plots within the cemetery at discounted rates.

Hughes sold 13 burial plots, thereby diverting funds from the City of Melrose, and netting approximately $75,000.