A mother has been hit with a fine and court costs for hundreds of pounds after she failed to make sure her child went to school.
Magistrates at Bodmin fined the woman £400 after it came to light her child had not been attending lessons at a local secondary school.
On Monday the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons to avoid identifying the child, failed to turn up at court and was prosecuted in her absence.
The court was told the child had 57 sessions of unauthorised absence out of a possible 130 attendances between September 6 and December 15 last year.
Magistrates also ordered the woman to pay legal costs of £329.36 and a victim surcharge of £15.
John Heath, Cornwall Council’s, principal education welfare officer, said he hoped the fine would send a clear message to other parents who fail to make sure their children go to school.
He said: “Education welfare officers in Cornwall work closely with schools, parents and pupils to try to sort out attendance issues. Prosecution is a last resort when everything else has failed.”
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