Body of man found rotting in home for SIX YEARS after landlord checks out gas supply
THE body of a man was found rotting in his home SIX YEARS after he died.
Robert Alton, 76, was discovered by his landlord who had received a court order to check the gas supply in the property in Bolton.
While the body was found on March 9 this year, he "likely" passed away in May 2017, an inquest into his death heard.
In a statement, Mr Alton's landlord Bolton at Home's CEO Noel Sharpe said: "It's completely unacceptable to us that something like this has happened" - stating the organisation should have done more to check on the pensioner.
Mrs Sharpe revealed that the company had "made many attempts" over a "number of years" to contact Mr Alton, but to no avail.
At the time of the horror discovery, the pensioner's death was not being treated as suspicious.
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In the statement, Mrs Sharpe said that the previous legal framework prevented workers from reaching Mr Alton sooner.
She said: "On 9 March 2023 we learned of the death of our tenant Robert Alton after his body was discovered at his home in Hemsworth Road, Bolton.
"The subsequent police and coroner's investigation has concluded Robert’s death was not suspicious and that he likely died in May 2017.
"Everyone at Bolton at Home has been deeply shocked by this and we realise it will concern and upset people to learn his body remained undiscovered for such a long time. It’s completely unacceptable to us that something like this has happened, and we've taken action to reduce the risk of it happening again.
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"The reason we didn't discover Robert's death for so long is because our previous procedure, while meeting legal requirements, wasn't strong enough to prevent something like this happening.
"We made many attempts to contact Robert over a number of years to arrange gas safety checks. It's clear that the action taken by us to understand why we couldn't contact him didn’t go far enough. Opportunities were missed in spotting that something was potentially wrong.
It's completely unacceptable to us that something like this has happened
Bolton at Home CEO Noel Sharpe
"We should have done more to check on Robert's welfare.
"We changed our procedure in July 2022, and we now immediately begin the process of seeking access to someone's home via a warrant in instances where we cannot contact them to arrange a gas safety check.
"It was this change and subsequent review of previous instances that ultimately led to us seeking a warrant to access Robert's home and discovering his body.
"The change to our procedure significantly reduces the risk of something like this from happening again. In addition, we’re also taking steps to enable our tenancy support team to work more closely with our gas safety team where we’re struggling to gain access to a property and where there may be welfare concerns.
"We're also exploring what else we might be able to do to further reduce the risk of this being repeated.
"I would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to Robert's loved ones, friends and neighbours and apologise to them for the opportunities we missed in finding out why we couldn’t contact him."