A grieving daughter was left furious after council officers tried to close safeguarding proceedings against her father’s care home, just two days after she reported his death.

Helen Crewdson had filed a complaint against Linwood Care Home in Thames Ditton, claiming her father, Robert William Cowan, was being neglected and had experienced dramatic weight loss.

But less than a week after he died, Mrs Crewdson, 41, received an email from a Surrey County Council officer suggesting her complaint be closed.

Having informed the authority of her father’s death on July 9, Rachel Croft, acting assistant senior manager for Elmbridge, replied on July 15, saying: “Thanks for your message, and please accept my condolences.

“I am assuming having not heard from you that you are happy with my proposal to close the safeguarding process regarding Linwood, and the complaint process.

“If I don’t hear from you within the next two weeks I will do this.”

Mrs Crewdson, who runs weight loss clinic Hypoxi Therapy Centre in Surbiton, said: “That is not acceptable.

“We have just been fobbed off. No one is willing to take responsibility.

“We are not able to fully grieve because we still have all this to deal with.”

The mother-of-two from Ewell had complained about the care home, run by Anchor, to the council’s social services.

She claimed Mr Cowan’s weight had dropped from 14 stone to just six stone in two years.

Mrs Crewdson also alleged the care home did not shower her father for weeks on end, did not make sure he ate and left him in his own faeces for hours.

She added her father was once found with a black eye, but she was never told how it had happened.

Mrs Crewdson said: “The neglect was awful. It was a catalogue of things that led to him getting so bad. I would not put my worst enemy in that place.”

Having suffered from dementia and leukaemia, Mr Cowan eventually died from pneumonia at Kingston Hospital, aged 72.

A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “We are looking into the events reported at this privately owned and managed care home and it would be inappropriate to comment further until we have done so.”

Edith Rushden, district manager for Linwood, said: “A full investigation is ongoing and the findings will be shared with the family of Mr Cowan and the local authority team in due course.”

She added a Care Quality Commission inspection report published in July had found residents were cared for safely and protected from any harm.