A care home has been fined £130,000 after a vulnerable woman died from choking on her breakfast.

Beryl Newton, 81, choked on a sausage that should have been mashed up for her by a staff member at Thameside Residential Care Home, in West Molesey.

She stopped breathing for 36 minutes at the care home, run by Anchor Trust, on May 30, 2011.

The mother-of-four suffered irreparable brain damage and died four days later, on June 3, 2011, at Kingston Hospital.

At the sentencing hearing at Guildford Crown Court, on Wednesday, October 1, Judge Noel Lucas said: “Had Anchor taken proper care of Mrs Newton, she would not have suffered the fate she did, the Newton family would not have had to make the heart-wrenching decision to switch off her life support and that family would have been spared the ordeal of the subsequent investigation, inquest and prosecution.”

Mrs Newton, who suffered a stroke in 2006, was on a soft food diet and needed to be supervised at meal times.

But her carer, Leongina Domanicka, admitted her poor English often left her unable to read care plans.

Prosecutor Malcolm Gibney said: “She was unable or unwilling to write in English. It’s equally clear that she struggled to read other people’s handwriting.”

Miss Domanicka admitted she did not know the word “choking” so was unable to respond properly when, after briefly leaving Mrs Newton alone, she started to choke on her breakfast.

Your Local Guardian:

Thameside Care Home in West Molesey.

Her husband Bob Newton said: “We were very close to our 60th wedding anniversary and I would’ve liked to get there. I was a lucky man to have her as my wife and my best friend.

“I don’t think Beryl should have died in the way she did.”

Anchor Trust admitted three charges relating to incidents between January 16, 2009, and June 9, 2011. These included a failure to ensure the safety of a person in its care, failure to make a suitable risk assessment and failure to take into account Miss Domanicka’s health and safety capabilities.

After the prosecution offered no evidence, the care provider was found not guilty of failing to ensure employees were adequately health and safety trained and failing to ensure Miss Domanicka was prepared to deal with residents after she had undergone a serious heart operation.

The trust has 28 days to pay the fine.

David Edwards, director of compliance for Anchor Trust, said they were deeply sorry for the failures and added: “We recognise issues at Thameside should have been addressed at an earlier stage and have now taken appropriate measures to ensure the safety of our residents.”