Devon hotel fined £35k after guest dies in swimming pool
A Devon hotel has been fined £35,000 after a guest drowned in its pool.
Non-swimmer Suresh Nanduri, 28, of London, died after getting into difficulty at Torquay's Rainbow International Hotel in May 2008.
Exeter Crown Court heard the swimming pool was unsupervised at the time and no written emergency procedures for pool incidents existed in the building.
Rainbow Hotel Ltd, admitted failing to discharge its duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Prosecutor Malcolm Galloway said Mr Nanduri had been warned by another member of his work party to stay in the shallow end of the pool.
Mr Galloway said: "His friend observed the deceased walking backwards and then slipping and completely submerging under the water."
Exeter Crown Court heard it took hotel staff up to three minutes to attend the pool after the alarm was raised, but Mr Nanduri could not be revived and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Mr Galloway said if a risk assessment had been undertaken and health and safety recommendations implemented, the "tragic death of Mr Nanduri could have been avoided".
The company was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £21,000 costs.
An inquest had previously recorded a verdict of accidental death.