Fined, father whose ex took children on holiday in term time
AN ESTRANGED father who was banned from seeing his children was fined for not making sure they went to school.
Furious Shane Allen hit out at the ‘joke’ justice system which found him guilty, even though he is prevented from having any contact with the youngsters after separating from their mother.
The 44-year- old fell foul of the law when his former partner took the three children on holiday to Scotland when they should have been at school.
His plight was revealed in court when he appealed against his conviction. He said he had no idea his ex, Charlene Megraw, had taken the children out of primary school to visit her family and had no part in the decision as he had no access to them or their mother.
Judge Ian Grainger expressed sympathy with him – but ruled that he
‘Whole thing is just a complete joke’
could not overturn the magistrates’ conviction against him.
Mr Allen breached the rules on school absence enforced on parents as part of former Westminster Education Secretary Michael Gove’s reforms.
The court heard how when the school contacted the children’s mother over their absence, she replied with a text message stating that they would be off for the week because they were ill.
However when the children – two boys aged seven and eight and a girl of ten – returned to class they told their teachers and fellow pupils about their holiday in October 2013.
The school then issued £60 fixed penalties to Mr Allen and Miss Megraw, 24, from Newbury, Berkshire. The pair were also taken to court and found guilty of failing to ensure their children attended school.
Magistrates gave them 12month conditional discharges and ordered each of the pair to pay costs of £150.
They both arrived at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday to contest that verdict, although Miss Megraw withdrew her appeal before the hearing began.
Mr Allen told the court he had had ‘nothing to do with’ his three children by Miss Megraw at the time of the absence.
He said: ‘Social services told me I had to stay away from them. I didn’t know anything about it until I got summonsed to court and then Charlene explained everything to me.’
Prosecutor Laura Phillips told the court that although she accepted that Mr Allen had been estranged from the children, he still had a legal obligation to ensure their schooling.
Edward Culver, defending, argued that Allen had had as much control over his children’s movements as he would have had if they had been kidnapped. He told the court ‘one parent taking the children away from school without the knowledge of the other’ was an ‘unavoidable cause’ for their absence for the unknowing parent.
However, a j udge and two accompanying magistrates dismissed his appeal, despite stating they had ‘sympathy’ with Mr Allen over the circumstances that had led to his conviction.
Judge Grainger said: ‘This is an offence of strict liability and we cannot accept that as far as Mr Allen is concerned Miss Megraw taking their children to Scotland was an unavoidable cause.’ After hearing that the pair were both on benefits, he upheld the magistrates’ court decision and ordered mother- of- f i ve Miss Megraw to pay an extra £150 costs for her abandoned appeal.
Speaking after the decision, Mr Allen said: ‘It’s stupid, the whole thing is just a complete joke.
‘They need to change the system because it doesn’t work.
‘If I still don’t have anything to do with her [Miss Megraw] ten years down the line and my kids do this again, I can still get done for it and end up facing a fine. It’s absolutely mad.’