A COUPLE have appeared in court to fight a £120 penalty fine after taking their 11-year-old son out of school for a memorial service.
James Haymore, 34, and wife Dana, 32, of Sandford Mill Road, Chelmsford, took Toby out of Chancellor Park Primary School for the service in California in the spring term.
The pair appeared in Colchester Magistrates' Court today (July 18) to deny the offence and claim the prosecution breached their human rights.
Rosie Brighouse, legal officer for human rights group Liberty who are advising the family, spoke to reporters after the hearing.
"Common sense must prevail here," said Ms Brighouse.
"Is criminalising parents for taking their children out of school for momentous family events really the best use of Council resources, court time and public money?
"The rules that led to the Haymores' ordeal go no way towards addressing the deeper and more complex social problems that contribute to some children repeatedly missing school."
The school claim that on top of Toby's absence to travel to America, his attendance record is that of 87 per cent between November 4, 2013, and March 21, 2014.
Yet Mr Haymore, a city banker for JP Morgan, claims the Year 6 pupil missed other days through illness and because he was attending grammar school open days.
The couple, who moved to England four years ago, also took younger children Brayden, eight, and Ellie, five, out of school.
The Haymores now face a potential £1,000 fine for failing to ensure their child attend school regularly.
If a holiday is unauthorised by a school, a £120 penalty fine can be handed out, but reduced to £60 if paid within 21 days.
Failure to pay can result in prosecution.
Speaking in the court prosecutor Natasha Taylor said: "Part of those absences were in relation to unauthorised term time holiday."
A two-day trial was fixed for 9.15am at Colchester Magistrates' Court on Friday, October 10.
Within today's 15-minute hearing the lawyers explained their arguments would surround an "abuse of process", whether Toby's attendance was irregular and whether there had been a breach of human rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
