A NEW attempt to prosecute the owners of a Lanarkshire care home where 14 elderly residents died in a fire has been launched.

Prosecutors served a new indictment on Thomas Balmer, Anne Balmer and their son Alan Balmer, of the now dissolved firm of Rosepark Care Home.

They face over 30 charges, including alleged contraventions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulation 1997.

Fourteen residents died and several other people were injured when a fire broke out in a downstairs cupboard in Rosepark Care Home in Uddingston in January 2004.

The Balmers had been due to stand trial over alleged safety breaches at Rosepark Care Home but a judge dismissed the charges over a legal technicality last year.

Prosecutors launched a legal challenge but in July the Appeal Court refused the Crown's appeal against the decision.

The Appeal Court ruled the Crown could not proceed with the indictment because the firm, which was run by Mr and Mrs Balmer and their son, had been dissolved in February 2005.

In Scots Law, a firm is a separate legal person' distinct from the partners of which it is composed.

The Appeal Court held that on dissolution of the firm there was a complete cessation of the legal person' of the firm, and that a dissolved firm did not retain a limited persona for the purposes of criminal prosecution.

The new indictment is directed against the Balmers as surviving partners' of the now dissolved firm.

They have been indicted only in their representative capacity and not as individuals.

It has also been served on Croftbank House Ltd, formerly Balmer Care Homes Ltd, which operates a care home at Croftbank House in Uddingston.

Charges on the indictment include alleged contraventions of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 and 1999.

The indictment is due to call at a preliminary hearing at the High Court in Glasgow on October 30.