A restaurant has been fined £20,000 after a woman fell through open trapdoors as she walked to the ladies' toilet.

Joan Morgan, 82, of Ranworth Close, Felpham, broke a leg as she plunged 5ft into the basement at Macari's in London Road, Bognor.

The fall left an open wound in her leg which took four months to heal.

She can now walk only with the aid of a zimmer frame and she has only just returned home after a year recuperating at a nursing home.

The accident happened in October last year as the Mrs Morgan went to use toilets at the back of the restaurant.

She walked through a lobby door and fell through the trapdoors before she had time to notice that they were open.

Moments earlier, staff had shown plumbers into the basement to investigate a water leak.

Emergency services alerted Arun District Council health and safety officers.

Restaurant owners S Macari and Son Ltd was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £2,785 costs after pleading guilty at Chichester Magistrates Court recently to four health and safety offences.

Alison Lindley, a senior environmental health officer, said: "This was a very serious accident which has resulted in the lady concerned losing her independence.

"The trapdoors had been left open and unguarded while the water leak was being investigated. If a proper physical barrier had been placed there while the doors were open this would almost certainly not have happened."

She said the company had co-operated fully with the investigation and had apologised to Mrs Morgan, who is considering legal action for compensation.

A council spokesman said: "The investigation concluded S Macari and Son Ltd had failed to do everything reasonably practicable to prevent the accident from happening.

"Its health and safety policy and risk assessments in existence prior to the accident fell short of the appropriate standards.

"In the two months after the accident S Macari and Son Ltd reviewed its policies and procedures but failed to improve its documentation and procedures sufficiently. The company has since engaged a health and safety consultant who has produced a written safety policy."

The accident happened as Arun's health and safety team was carrying out a programme of inspecting pubs and restaurants with trapdoors to their cellars.

Enzo Macari, a director of the restaurant, said: "We are a self-service restaurant and have been here since 1961.

"We have a very good safety record and this was the first reportable accident we have had here in all that time.

"A formal apology was made in court and I don't want to add anything to that."

Mrs Morgan did not want to comment on the case.