THE owners of a Stourbridge care home have been ordered to pay a court bill of more than £250,000 after a 91-year-old resident was found to have frozen to death in the grounds.

Abele View Ltd has been fined £133,000 and ordered to pay £122,412 in costs after admitting failures which caused the death of dementia sufferer Hilda Fairweather.

The pensioner died of hypothermia in January 2009 after leaving Abele View care home off Roman Road, Iverley, unnoticed.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard just two staff were looking after 29 residents when Mrs Fairweather, who was prone to wandering off, was "overlooked completely" until almost 12 hours after her disappearance.

A staff member at the isolated south Staffordshire home, found the fire exit Mrs Fairweather had walked through ajar shortly after she disappeared into its "pitch-black" grounds, the court heard.

But a head count was not carried out, and no scheduled checks on Mrs Fairweather were conducted during the night.

Abele View Ltd pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to failing to ensure the safety of its residents and making an insufficient risk assessment.

Prosecutor Bernard Thorogood said the safety breaches were committed despite numerous previous incidents in which confused residents had absconded.

Mrs Fairweather, originally from Kidderminster, was last seen by staff at 7.30pm on January 29 2009, and was found dead at 7.45am the next day.

Mr Thorogood said: "The sad and deeply unattractive facts are that she had frozen to death outside the home on a freezing night in January when she should not have been able to get out.

He added: "She should have been put to bed, and she should have been checked for other purposes through the night."

Records which should have shown the scheduled checks were missing, said Mr Thorogood, who outlined 18 instances of "accepted criminality" on behalf of Abele View which acknowledged it had inadequate staffing levels and that risks were created by poor supervision and management.

The court heard a "wave of an accountant's wand" in September 2011 reduced Abele View Ltd from a thriving company with assets of £1.3 million to a valueless shell with just £100.

Prosecutors believe the move was an attempt to present Abele View to the court as having "empty pockets".

But Ronald Walker QC said the company emphatically denied the restructuring was an attempt to avoid a future fine, claiming its management was then unaware of any impending prosecution.

Since Mrs Fairweather’s death, Mr Walker said Abele View had altered its procedures, alarmed external doors, erected new fencing, upgraded external lighting and added that an ex-Care Quality Commission inspector now conducted unannounced visits on behalf of the firm's parent group.

The barrister added: "This dreadful accident was undoubtedly caused by sloppy procedures, but it wasn't a case of deliberate risk-taking.”

Judge David Fletcher said: "It's clear this was not just a failure of the staff present on the night. The defendant company fell very short of the applicable standard of care in terms of safety procedures."

South Staffordshire District Council brought the case against the home under health and safety legislation after the Crown Prosecution Service opted not to bring proceedings in 2011 following a police inquiry.