The casket of Walter Hudson, who weighed 80 stone when he died

FUNERAL directors in Scotland have warned obese people are being buried, rather than cremated as they wished, because their US-style caskets are too large for traditional furnaces.

Britain’s obesity epidemic is having a growing impact on funeral services, they said, with some cemetery owners levying additional charges for larger coffins because burial plots are in short supply. It has been estimated that almost two thirds of adults in Scotland are overweight, with 27.1% classed as being obese.

The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) said some councils had invested in larger ovens and refrigerators but that families in Scotland often decide on a burial rather than make a longer journey to the nearest crematorium with larger-size facilities.

One firm, Anderson Maguire in Glasgow, said families