Bupa Care Homes has been fined £400,000 after an eight-year-old girl suffered major injuries from a falling tree.

The care home provider pleaded guilty at West Hampshire Magistrates Court for failing to provide a system to manage trees at Oak Lodge Care Home in Bitterne, Southampton following the incident on 8 July 2021.

The court heard the girl had to have her leg amputated after a lime tree fell on her while she was jogging with her father on a pavement outside the entrance to the care hone.

It was found that the tree had been rotting with a common fungus for several years prior to the accident.

HSE inspector Natalie Pomfret said: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure of the company to have in place suitable arrangements for managing trees on their premises, and failure to ensure that the trees were properly inspected and maintained.”

Rebecca Pearson, managing director for Bupa Care Services, said: “We are deeply sorry this happened.

“We take our safety responsibilities very seriously and accept that there were failings that led to this terrible accident. We have since made improvements to our tree management policy and system across all our care homes, which includes regularly monitoring and inspecting our trees within the grounds of our homes to prevent anything like this happening again.

“We offer our sincere apologies to the family.”