Care home deaths case dismissed as accused not liable for failings

Published on Tuesday 19 May 2009 22:07

A PROSECUTION of the owners of a care home where 14 elderly residents died in a fire has collapsed after charges against them were dismissed.

Thomas Balmer, his wife Anne and their son Alan had faced 17 charges relating to health and safety at work and fire precautions regulations breaches at Rosepark Care Home in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire.

Lord Matthews dismissed the charges at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday following legal argument.

Fourteen residents died and four people were injured when a fire broke out in a downstairs cupboard of the care home on 31 January, 2004.

The indictment was served on the Balmers as the whole surviving partners of the now dissolved firm of Rosepark Care Home.

The charges against them ran between April 1996 and 31 January, 2004.

They included allegations that there was a failure to prepare a personal emergency plan for each resident, and to provide adequate training in fire safety for all employees.

It was also alleged that on one occasion in August 2000 fire exits were obstructed by mattresses, an organ, a hoist and a wheelchair.

Lord Matthews said it was "fatal" to the indictment that the Balmers were charged as the surviving partners of the now dissolved firm.

He said: "The surviving partners are not in law liable for the criminal acts of the firm, assuming there were any, which is a matter on which I cannot comment."

He added: "In any event, prosecuting someone as a partner only does not mean anything in my opinion, unless, as I have indicated, it is truly a means of indicting the partnership.

"Furthermore, the partners as such are no more the employers than they were as individuals and the indictment is irrelevant, if it is an attempt somehow to indict them rather than the firm."

He said it was clearly in the public interest that the Crown investigate matters such as this and attempt to prosecute them if they can.

He added: "The fact is that the law does not allow them to do so, at least in the form chosen."

A Crown Office spokesman said: "The decision by the High Court to dismiss the indictment against Thomas Balmer, Anne Balmer and Alan Balmer as the whole surviving partners of the firm of Rosepark Care Home is being considered by Crown Counsel and a decision will shortly be made as to whether an appeal will be lodged."