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Non Attendance fine/prosecution - separated parents
MrsSmith4323
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Newbie
Husband and I are separated. He lives in Asia now, me the UK.
He wrote to the school asking for an unauthorised absence. They refused
I wrote to the school stating I did not agree to him taking them out of school during term time and wanted it made clear I was NOT in agreement yet I had no choice.
I was fined, so was he.
I asked him to pay the fines and wrote to the school stating if any fines were incurred my ex would be responsible. When the fines came through he said he'd paid....
Turns out he didn't and now I am being prosecuted and papers have been served.
I have no money for a solicitor or to pay the fines as the divorce costs are crippling me.
Please advise me what to do? I quite clearly stated in writing I was against him doing this.
He wrote to the school asking for an unauthorised absence. They refused
I wrote to the school stating I did not agree to him taking them out of school during term time and wanted it made clear I was NOT in agreement yet I had no choice.
I was fined, so was he.
I asked him to pay the fines and wrote to the school stating if any fines were incurred my ex would be responsible. When the fines came through he said he'd paid....
Turns out he didn't and now I am being prosecuted and papers have been served.
I have no money for a solicitor or to pay the fines as the divorce costs are crippling me.
Please advise me what to do? I quite clearly stated in writing I was against him doing this.
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Apologies if I am being stupid here...
Presumably your child lives with you in the UK. How did your ex take the child out of school? Did they come over to the UK and have contact during the school term?
Yes, I didn't think about a late return. That's a possibility.
If this is the case then ask the School/LA if they will drop the charge against you submitting your evidence to them that you objected and the circumstances of how he took them abroad eg not returning from visiting them.
If they refuse, then it will go to court. You don;t have a statuory defence, there are very few. You will be better off pleading guilty. Parents aren't aware of a lot of this, they think it's 'just a fine'. You can and arents are taken to court even without the offer of a penalty notice.
If you want to consult a solicitor again many aren't very clued up, but I would suggest talking to Michael Spoors (Jon Platt's solicitor)
on 17th June i wrote to the school saying I did not agree with him taking them but I had no choice as he is their father
on 17th september I got a penalty notice -- sent it to my ex and he says he paid the fine on 4th Oct which I have in writing in a letter to the council
I've hear NOTHING from the school or the council until I got a letter dated 27th January 2020 serving the single Justice Procedural notice
I am scared.
I have done nothing wrong and I stated in writing to the school i did not agree with him doing this. at no point have the school contacted me to discuss this.
Please can someone help? I can't afford to rack up any more legal bills on top of an acrimonious divorce from this man.
Not sure being separated would even make a difference. If you were still living together and did not permit them to be taken out of school but your husband took them on holiday, you'd surely have to be half liable?
I do appreciate things are easier said than done and some people are intimidating, threatening, controlling, etc - but if there was any risk of him doing something serious or making threats, I would have thought the police should have been involved.
Sorry - perhaps I'm way off the mark and they will take circumstances into consideration. Fingers crossed. Must be very worrying.
Either speak to the school or go to court. Those are literally your options now.
Just to clarify a fine is a criminal sentence handed down by the court. It follows a conviction.
A penalty notice isn't. So when people say they've been fined they are often incorrect.