A funeral home reportedly stored coffins containing bodies in a corridor next to an old bike and a Christmas tree.

Coffins at the Midcounties Co-operative Funeralcare home in Walsall were stacked on shelves in a corridor with a mouldy ceiling, pictures apparently inside the home and published by The Sun appear to show.

The newspaper also quoted a source who claimed bodies were usually left for one or two days, but on one occasion in October, a coffin remained for two weeks.

"The way they treat the dead is absolutely scandalous," the source said.

Jane Hughes, whose father John Bagby's body was kept at the home while awaiting his funeral, said she was "sickened to the stomach" by the claims.

Midcounties Co-operative promised to investigate the claims.

The Midcounties Co-operative - which is not connected to the Co-op group which also provides funerals - describes itself on its website as the largest independent co-operative in the UK, employing 9,000 people and with more than 500,000 members.

It operates 77 funeral homes across the West Midlands, Oxfordshire, Swindon and Gloucestershire