DIY giant B&Q is facing an enormous legal bill after selling a “defective” radiator to a Shropshire homeowner who suffered injuries in a fall.

Valerie Atkins bought a portable radiator from B&Q’s Kidderminster store in November 2004 to provide winter warmth after her home was hit by flooding, a court was told.

After bringing it home, the 58-year-old, of Friar Street in Bridgnorth, went to move it on November 27 when the wheel jammed and it came to a halt.

Mrs Atkins then fell on top of the radiator and suffered serious shoulder injuries, which her lawyers say have caused her pain and badly interfered with her working life ever since.

Later examination of the radiator revealed a metal plate fixing one of the plastic wheel castors was distorted.

At Stoke County Court last year, District Judge Rank found B&Q fully liable for Mrs Atkins’ “unpleasant fall”, saying she had “stuck to her version of events”, and had proved herself an “honest witness”.

The judge said the box in which the radiator was packed had been re-sealed after delivery to B&Q and it was probable “the bent plate had been damaged by the radiator being dropped on some occasion before Mrs Atkins entered the store”.

Judge Rank went on to order B&Q to pay the legal costs, which the company’s counsel, Mr Simon Brindle, said today came to “in excess of £100,000″. At London’s Civil Appeal Court today, Mr Brindle argued Judge Rank should have found the defect in the machine had nothing to do with B&Q but was caused when Mrs Atkins fell.

He pointed to expert evidence that the defect would not have caused the radiator to come to a sudden halt and also attacked the legal costs order as unfair.

However, refusing B&Q permission to appeal, Lady Justice Smith said Judge Rank was entitled to find the radiator was defective at the point of sale and the allegation that Mrs Atkins was in some way to blame was “on any view hopeless”.

Although the legal costs order “may seem hard” on B&Q, she said: “I don’t think there is any realistic prospect of the Court of Appeal interfering.”

The amount of Mrs Atkins’ damages payout has yet to be assessed.

By Jason Lavan