THE owners of a hotel have been fined £10,000 after a child fell from an unsecured window.
The one-year-old girl and her parents were staying at Meldrum House Hotel in Aberdeenshire when she fell about 10 feet on to paving below in April 2012.
Owners Meldrum House Estates admitted a health and safety breach over the incident and were fined at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
The court heard the family were staying in a room in the converted stable block when the fall happened shortly after they arrived. The youngster was taken to hospital but is understood not to be seriously injured.
Gary Aitken, head of the health and safety division at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: "Immediately after this incident the company had the windows fixed shut and have since introduced new risk assessments. This was an accident that could have resulted in the severe injury or death of a little girl. Thankfully she only sustained minor injuries."
The company pleaded guilty to contraventions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and were fined £10,000.
Andy Burgess, chief executive at Meldrum House Estate, said: "We felt that we had taken all the professional advice and put measures in place to prevent any sort of incident of this nature ever happening.
"It was a very unfortunate accident and we are thankful that the little girl in question was not seriously hurt."
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