A BELEAGUERED NHS trust facing a hefty fine in the wake of two of its patient's deaths has warned that every pound it is fined is a pound taken out of mental health care.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has already admitted breaching health and safety regulations following the deaths of Connor Sparrowhawk and Teresa Colvin.

Connor, 18, was found dead on July 4, 2013 after drowning in a bathtub at Slade House, Oxford.

He had suffered an epileptic fit and an earlier inquest ruled that ‘neglect’ had played a part in his death.

Teresa Colvin, 45, was found unconscious at Woodhaven Clinic, Hampshire, in April 2012 and later died.

As the two-day sentencing hearing continued at Oxford Crown Court yesterday Paul Spencer, defending for the Trust, urged the court for leniency in light of its struggling finances.

He said: “A distance should be drawn between a trust that hasn’t learned a lesson, appears to be reluctant to recognise and accept its responsibility and its guilt and the position of this trust.

“It has been candid and it has been candid for a significant time.”

He added that ‘lessons had been learned’ across the Trust since 2016 and said that now more than 98 per cent of its staff had epilepsy training in the wake of the tragedy of Connor Sparrowhawk.

He also warned that the trust was already facing a budget deficit of around £1.69 million and that any fine would hit the service hard.

Bernard Thorogood, prosecuting, maintains that the Trust had ‘systemic’ failings.

Mr Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith will deliver his sentence on Monday at 10am at the same court.