Seven more families have had to endure shocking mix-ups in burying their loved ones across the North East, the Northern Echo has revealed.

Councils across the region were forced to admit to the distressing blunders which happened in six different graveyards in the last ten years.

The shocking figures, exclusively obtained by The Northern Echo, also revealed thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been spent trying to put things right.

Read more: Fears 'hundreds' more loved ones are buried in wrong place after grave blunders

It comes after The Echo exposed the shocking Wingate grave blunder when the Bell family from County Durham discovered they had been visiting someone else’s grave where they believed their dad Thomas Bell had been buried for 17 years.

They only discovered the blunder after the death of mum Hilda, whose last wishes were to be buried alongside her husband, and grave diggers found someone else was buried in his grave. An investigation into the incident is now underway.

Figures revealed through a series of Freedom of Information requests by The Northern Echo show families had to endure the blunders in graveyards in Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Redcar, Houghton-le-Spring and North Tyneside.

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Now a map has shown the exact graveyards where councils admitted the incidents occurred.

All five councils where mix-ups occurred have apologised for the mistakes and sought to reassure residents the mistakes are extremely rare.

Use our map to see where the incidents occurred

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