Better Regulation Minister Matt Kean is concerned as complaints about funeral planning services reach unprecedented levels.

Over the last five years, Fair Trading received 175 complaints about funeral services and it’s prompted the minister to issue a warning for consumers to avoid “dodgy operators”.

Funeral owner and director Chris Timmins tells Ray Hadley “the industry is a shambles”.

“There’s funeral directors on every corner and half of them don’t even have a corner, they’ve got a mobile phone and off they go.”

Chris says the complaints come because the dodgy directors don’t know “what to do on the day of the funeral”.

“It’s arriving and not having the graves booked, not having the grave the right size. Telling people they were going to get something and they get something else… that’s where the problem is.”

In New South Wales an individual is not required to hold a licence to conduct a funeral.

“A Facebook page and away you go,” says Chris.

“In this modern society of disruptors and price comparisons and whatever else, it’s just getting worse and worse by the day.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview