A WOMAN is looking for answers after an accident in a Basingstoke shop left her with a broken wrist.

On November 25, Nikki Culleton, 47, was in the EAT café on the ground floor in Debenhams in Festival Place after making a start on her Christmas shopping, when the accident happened.

Loyal Debenhams customer Nikki was having something to eat when an elderly lady in a mobility scooter navigating the small café space accidentally trapped her arm between the table and the scooter, which left her with the injury.

The incident was then recorded in the shop’s accident log book.

Nikki said: “It is quite a tight space to move around in and there really isn’t enough room for a scooter or anything like that.

“There isn’t really enough room for people with a few bags of shopping.

“There is another option upstairs in the same place, why didn’t any of the staff direct this lady to the place where there is plenty of room?”

Since then, Debenhams has so far not offered to help with any of the problems that Nikki has faced as a result of this accident.

While the injury is healing, Nikki has not been able to drive from her home in Chineham to work as a sales manager in Bracknell. As a result, she has had to pay for taxis to and from work.

She said this has left her significantly out of pocket due, with the injury taking around five weeks for the broken wrist to heal.

Nikki said: “No one seems to care, or take responsibility for anything that happened.

"It takes a long time for them to respond to me, and it has made me really upset.”

So far attempts at resolution with the store have not had any result and the store’s legal team have said that Debenhams is not at fault, and that there is no CCTV record of the incident happening.

Even after appealing the decision, the insurance company told Nikki that the result would likely the same. Nikki said: “They said that it could take three months to re-investigate and that the outcome would likely be the same. How can they conduct a thorough, independent review of the case when it already seems that they have made their mind up?”

A spokesman from the company that owns EAT, Compass Group UK and Ireland said: “We are aware of this incident and investigating.”

A spokesman from Debenhams said: “We are working with our food partners to investigate this matter.”