'Inadequate' care firm fined £142,500 for safety breach that led to elderly woman falling from stairlift

A firm that owns a care home where a pensioner broke her hip has admitted a health and safety charge.
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A resident at The Alders Care Home, in Arnside Crescent, Morecambe, fell from a stairlift in 2015 when she was not strapped in properly, and has since passed away.

Calderdean Limited, based on Church Street, Blackpool, ran the home at the time.

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The company pleaded guilty to failing to discharge a general health and safety duty to a person other than an employee during a hearing before Judge Philip Parry at Preston’s Sessions House Court.

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No further evidence was offered against its director, Margaret Louisa Croft, of Lockey Croft, Wiggington, York.

The judge ruled a £142,500 fine and £26,297.76 costs are to be paid within 56 days.

The home, registered for a maximum of 32, costs up to £421 a week and cares for elderly people with dementia and mental health conditions.

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Now known as Arnside Lodge, it has been under the management of a different company, Thornton Lodge Care Ltd, since February 16, 2015, after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) raised concerns about people’s care and welfare and took action against Calderdean Ltd.

In Deceber 2014 the CQC had carried out an unannounced inspection and rated the Alders ‘inadequate’.

The Gazette, the UK’s official public record, reports the Calderdean Ltd is in liquidation.