Court ruling lands dad in Catch 22 plight

Man banned from seeing children - but fined for their truancy

A NEWBURY dad claims he is caught in a nightmare Catch 22 scenario as he has been banned by West Berkshire Council from seeing his children but is fined when they play truant.

Shane Allen said the council’s social services have ordered him to have no contact with his offspring.

However, when their mother, Charlene Megraw, removed them from Fir Tree Primary School in Newbury without his knowledge, the council’s enforcement wing took him to court, where he was fined.

Edward Culver, representing Allen at Reading Crown Court, said Allen had as much control over the situation as if his children had been kidnapped.

A judge dismissed his appeal, however, rendering Allen liable for more fines any time it happens again.

Last September Allen, aged 44, and Ms Megraw, who lives at Skyllings, Newbury, were both made subject to a 12-month conditional discharge and each ordered to pay £150 costs plus a statutory £15 surcharge after being convicted of failing to ensure the children attended school regularly.

It emerged that, although Ms Megraw had said they were ill, the children told teachers they had been on holiday to Scotland.

On Tuesday, May 5, Allen appealed his conviction at Reading Crown Court.

Giving evidence, he said he had been banned from all contact with his children by West Berkshire Council social services because of his drug problem.

He added: “I wondered why I had to go to court. Like I’ve said all along, I don’t understand, I don’t even know why I’m here.”

Mr Culver argued that the estranged father had had as much control over his children’s movements as he would have had if they had been kidnapped.

He told the the court that “one parent taking the children away from school without the knowledge of the other parent was, in law, an ‘unavoidable cause’ for their absence on the part of the unknowing parent”.

Judge Ian Grainger said: “We have some sympathy with Mr Allen, whose evidence that he had no contact with these children at the time we make plain that we accept.”

However, he added: “This is an offence of ‘strict liability’ and we cannot accept that, as far as Mr Allen is concerned, Ms Megraw taking their children to Scotland was an unavoidable cause.”

After hearing that the pair are both on benefits, the judge upheld the original magistrates’ court decision and ordered mother-of-five Miss Megraw to pay an extra £150 costs for her abandoned appeal.

She had initially blamed her own conviction on a breakdown in communication on the council’s part.

Speaking after the decision, 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 [Charlene] 10 years down the line and my kids do this again I can still get done for it and end up facing a fine