A Liverpool substance misuse service and its director have today (Wednesday 24 May) been sentenced at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court after being found guilty in February 2023 of running an unlawful service.
The company that runs the service We Do Recover CIC was fined a total of £45,000 and ordered to pay £15,000 costs and a £190 victim surcharge.
The director of the service, Fenella Price was given a community order for 12 months to complete 200 hours unpaid work within this timeframe and ordered to pay £500 costs and £90 victim surcharge.
Fenella Price was also disqualified for being a director of a company for 3 years effective from 14 June 2023.
On 17 February, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard We Do Recover CIC, which was based at 30-34 Kremlin Drive, Liverpool, operated without CQC registration. This is a criminal offence under section 10 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
CQC brought the prosecution after receiving concerns about the treatment We Do Recover CIC provided to people. CQC investigated and found the service was not registered, even though it had been providing regulated activity between for nine months from September 2020.
The court heard Fenella Price, director of the company, was aware of the requirement to register with CQC to provide care and treatment, however she continued to run the service without registration. This put people at serious risk of harm, as care was provided without the benefit of regulation.
The residential treatment of vulnerable people who use this type of service carries significant risk to their health and wellbeing and must be provided with appropriate standards of care and appropriate monitoring to keep them safe.
We Do Recover pleaded guilty to the offence at the first opportunity, however Fenella Price pleaded not guilty to charges of providing regulated services without registration in breach of section 10 of the Health & Social Care Act 2008. Fenella Price was found guilty of the section 10 offence after a trial in February 2023.
Ros Sanderson, CQC’s deputy director of national enforcement, said:
“It’s unacceptable that We Do Recover CIC and Fenella Price risked people’s safety by running this service without the benefit of CQC registration. That’s why I welcomed the court’s decision in February to find them guilty.
“The registration process vets services before they care for people to ensure that they can meet the standards people should be able to expect.
“Unregistered services operate without oversight, putting people at risk of harm.
“When we find providers operating unlawfully, we do not hesitate to act to protect people, as we did in this case.”