Paul Lewis

­A CARE agency manager was repeatedly criticised for not answering questions as she gave her evidence at an inquest into the death of one of her clients yesterday (Thursday).

Sayeda Ahmed, the manager of Snowball Care, one of the companies used by Islington Council, was asked some questions more than five times by the coroner Mary Hassell at the hearing into death of Paul Lewis.

He died at his home in Hanley Gardens in Stroud Green in August 2021 after his bed set alight.

The inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court had already been told that the 47-year-old suffered from multiple sclerosis and his family say he was “completely immobile”.

He was left alone on the day he died after his carer left the flat despite being contracted to stay the night, and failed to inform the office that he had gone.

Earlier this year the court heard that lit tealights were left on cardboard boxes on Mr Lewis’s bed alongside rolled up bits of paper to enable him to light his own cigarettes.

Mr Lewis’s relatives at the court in July

With his family watching in court, Ms Ahmed was asked five times by Ms Hassell whether she regarded Mr Lewis as being at risk from fire, being both a smoker and as a man with “limited mobility”.

She initially told the court his smoking “didn’t pose a risk”, adding: “He used a lighter and his hands weren’t shaking”.

But asked the same question, she later answered “yes he was”.

Ms Hassell questioned her further but Ms Ahmed was unable to expand on anything she had done to mitigate that risk except warn carers “to be vigilant” and ensure “no naked flames when they’re not around and if he needed to smoke, support him to smoke”.

She admitted she had not made any record of telling carers not to leave a naked flame.

In evidence given at an earlier hearing the fire investigation officer Steven Elliott testified she had told him she knew a candle had been left on Mr Lewis’s bed. On Wednesday she called that conversation “a misunderstanding”.

Coroner Mary Hassell

A risk assessment into Mr Lewis’s capabilities said that he lit his cigarettes using a candle, and couldn’t use a lighter, but Ms Ahmed said in court she had just written down what he told her and in reality it was untrue.

She denied any knowledge of a candle being used to light cigarettes.

It emerged that in the event of a “large fire” carers had been advised to leave him in his bed and call 999 from outside the house.

“So if there is a large fire, [they are] to leave a man who can’t walk, alone in the building?” asked Ms Hassell.

“Yes, their safety comes first,” Ms Ahmed replied.

The court was told despite having a progressive wasting disease, no further care assessment was recorded for him after his initial assessment in 2014 until 2019,  and this was done on the phone.

Ms Ahmed defended her decision not to check whether his alarms worked and instead asked Mr Lewis if they were.

At one point during her evidence, Ms Hassell asked her whether her paperwork was “ever anything other than a tick-box”?

She replied: “Ma’am he was a difficult client to manage. We had him for seven years.”

The carer involved was questioned at the inquest in July.

Miladul Islam said it had been a “mistake” to leave Mr Lewis without informing the agency.

He said a candle was beside Mr Lewis’s bed but it was not lit.

The inquest continues.