THREE care homes owned by a businessman serving a prison sentence for failing to protect an elderly resident who fell to her death have been rated as ‘inadequate’ by inspectors.

The three homes, all in or around Hartlepool, were given the lowest possible overall rating after unannounced visits by the teams of inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The homes, Four Winds Residential Home in Park Drive, Hartlepool, Highnam Hall in Park Avenue, Hartlepool and Parkview Residential Home, in Station Lane, Seaton Carew, are all owned by Matt Matharu.

In February Matharu, of Elwick Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for eight months at Teesside Crown Court after Judge Michael Taylor said he had shown “a reckless disregard” for health and safety.

It followed the death in 2012 of Norah Elliott, 90, who suffered serious head injuries after climbing out of her upstairs bedroom window at the Parkview Residential Home in Seaton Carew.

Mrs Elliot, who had dementia, was taken to James Cook University Hospital, where she died of her injuries. The window was not fitted with adequate safety devices to protect against falls.

Matharu, 50, who denied the charges against him, was found guilty of two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act of failing to ensure people were not exposed to risk following a trial in 2014.

Judge Taylor criticised his lack of knowledge about health and safety and described the training to staff as “rudimentary in the extreme.”

The CQC inspectors visited the Four Winds home in Hartlepool in early February. They found the home inadequate in three out of five categories and requiring improvement in the other two.

The inspector team visited Highnam Hall in Hartlepool in January and found the home inadequate in two out of five categories and requiring improvement in the other two.

After the inspection of Parkview in Seaton Carew in February the CQC found the home to be inadequate in two out of five categories and requiring improvement in the remaining three.

A spokeswoman for the Four Winds group of care homes in the Hartlepool area said: “We are working closely with CQC and the local authority and the safety and welfare of the residents is paramount.”