Father loses truancy appeal

Penalties on truants' parents are being toughened

A man fined more than his wife over their daughter's truancy has lost an appeal against the sentence.

The 46-year-old man, who can not be named for legal reasons, told judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC at Southwark Crown Court in London that it was "not right" that he had been fined £250 when his wife was fined £150.

The man represented himself at what is thought to be the first appeal against sentence for failure to ensure a child's attendance at school.

He had intended to appeal against conviction until it was pointed out to him that he had pleaded guilty to that charge.

But he said the truanting of his 15-year-old daughter was not his fault.

"I start work at 7am. She starts school at 9am. I can't take her," he said.

"My wife keeps telling me she is at school and then I am phoned up and told she is absent."

Parental responsibility

The court heard that the daughter had attended lessons only six times in the three months before the original magistrates' court hearing, and on only three of the 54 school days since.

The judge told the man he had to make a special effort to get his daughter to school.

"You have to accept your responsibility as a parent," he said.

"But she is completely beyond my control," the father said.

"She doesn't listen to me. She brings all her mates in my house and they nick all my stuff.

"She even tries to punch me. I can't do anything. She is getting worse and worse.

"You've got to do something about her," he added.

'Common excuse'

But barrister Claire Heller, for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, said the father's version of events was not accepted.

The "out of control" excuse was often used in such cases.

"As for the difference in fines, he quite simply earns a lot more than his wife," she said.

The judge said he agreed there was "no justifiable complaint".

"This is a particularly bad case," he said.

"This has not been going on for a week or two but for months and months and months.

"The local authority people almost begged him to make sure his daughter got to school."

But she was no nearer to receiving a "proper education" and he did not accept the parents' excuse.

"If she was truly out of control as was suggested they would have approached social services and enlisted their support.

"The assessment of the local authority is that the parents are colluding with the child in allowing her to stay at home.

"The £250 fine is a proper one. The appeal is dismissed."