A CARE home boss has lost his appeal against a ban on running homes.

Dennis Clark ran Rosecroft Rest Home in Cross Road, Southwick, until August, when it was closed after an inspector was “appalled” by the state of it.

His registration as a care provider was cancelled by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after social services raised concerns about standards at the home.

His appeal against the ban has been turned down by judges who said: “It is clear that concerns had been raised about Rosecroft for some time but no action taken.”

Mr Clark opened the home in 1984. By last summer he had 15 residents and a paying lodger.

They had a mixture of “higher dependency” health and mental health issues, such as dementia, diabetes, cancer and alcoholism.

In May, Brighton and Hove City Council raised concerns about the care of residents it had placed there.

In July last year a West Sussex social services investigation found a resident had been neglected when the home failed to report they had a pressure sore.

The same month, a delivery driver said he could not get a response from staff for 15 minutes.

The appeal judges were told: “Someone came to the front of the house . . . but it looked to him as if she had just woken up.”

The same day, a nurse then had trouble finding staff when she found a man who was lodging at the home walking naked from the waist down outside the home, saying he was looking for vodka.

After visiting the home two weeks later, one inspector described herself as “appalled” at the state of the home.

At one point a hen, normally kept in the garden, walked into the kitchen.

After her visit a resident had got outside and become confused.

When police arrived, Mr Clark refused at first to let them inside.

District nurses criticised a lack of liquid soap and paper towels.

On August 1, residents were removed.

The CQC, the watchdog for care homes, later cancelled Mr Clark’s registration as a service provider in August on the grounds of 17 breaches of regulations.

Appealing against his ban at a Health, Education and Social Care tribunal in November, Mr Clark admitted the home had taken too many people in, and that his cleaning and record-keeping was “a bit haphazard”.

He asked for permission to run the home on a smaller scale.

He said he had not had enough time to respond to concerns before the home was closed down.

But in their judgment, a three-strong panel led by Judge Melanie Lewis said: “Mr Clark failed to satisfy us that he has any real insight into why things had gone wrong.

“In turn, we could not have confidence that he could run an effective home in compliance with the regulations in the future.”