Church fined £40,000 over pensioner’s care home death fall

Inadequate safety measures at care home where 94-year-old man fell from second-floor window.

27th Oct 2020

A catholic diocese has been fined £40,000 over the death of a care home resident in Dundee.

Dundee Sheriff Court was told that in the early hours of May 30, 2017, a 94-year-old man fell nearly 30ft from a second-floor window of the Wellburn Care Home.

An investigation by Police Scotland and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the bedroom window was unsafe.

Many of the windows at the care home had not been fitted with restrictors, which prevent them being opened wide enough for a person to fall.

The court heard the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dunkeld had failed to put in place safety measures to protect elderly and vulnerable residents.

The Diocese pleaded guilty to health and safety contraventions at the court on October 14 and was fined £40,000 on Tuesday.

The care home closed in June 2017.

Alistair Duncan, head of the Health and Safety Investigation Unit at the Crown Office, said: “This tragic incident could easily have been prevented had suitable and sufficient measures been put in place.

“A window restrictor would have prevented this from being able to happen.

“Hopefully this prosecution and the sentence will remind other organisations that failure to fulfil their obligations can have tragic consequences and that they will be held to account for their failings.”