FAMILIES of residents at a Ringwood care home have been left shocked after 17 arrests.

A total of 13 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested at the Linford Park Nursing Home in Poulner and a further four staff members, believed to have been running the home, were arrested on suspicion of neglect.

A fifth person was arrested on suspicion of theft – but this is not related to the care investigation.

It is now feared the home could be forced to close, after all its residents were moved out.

The home has more than 100 beds but it only had 36 residents registered when the UK Border Agency officers swooped early on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Care Quality Commission, which oversees care homes, said: “All the residents have been safely assisted to find alternative accommodation and that currently there is no one receiving care at Linford Park Nursing Home, and we do not expect this position to change.

“We are monitoring the situation and all enforcement options are being considered. CQC will report fully in due course.”

Linford Park is owned by Northdown Estates Ltd, whose property director is Margaret Jordan, 61.

During the raid the standard of care given to one resident was questioned, which led to police arresting Mrs Jordan, 78-year-old Matthew Joseph, both of London and a 62-year-old man from Christchurch on suspicion of neglect. They were later released on bail. A 47-year-old man from Ringwood was arrested and questioned the next day.

Emergency care staff were drafted in, but some residents were moved out, including Jean Curtis’s mother Mary, 98.

Mrs Curtis has now helped her mother move to a new home in Fordingbridge.

Mrs Curtis told the BBC her mother had been moved like “a piece of old meat”

She added: “This has been a great shock that people have come in and taken away her life.

“She’s being shuffled around like a piece of old meat.

“She’s been very comfortable at the home, very well looked after.

“The care has been good as far as I’m aware.”

Workers from a number of health agencies, including social services and ambulance crew, were brought in to help move residents.

The home, in Linford Park Road, was rated adequate and given one star in its latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission in February.

On its website the business is described as being “designed by the needs of our residents” and a place where “dignity, privacy, comfort and personal choice are at the heart of our ethos”.

Three staff members held on suspicion of neglect were bailed until October 14. Two detainees are on immigration bail, the remaining 11 are in detention.

The UK Border Agency said it was holding eight females from Ghana, Malawi and the Philippines and three males from Ghana and the Philippines.