Term time holiday dad Jon Platt found guilty of taking his children to Walt Disney World during school
A DAD who took his seven-year-old daughter on a term-time holiday to Disney World has been slapped with a £2,000 fine after an epic two-year landmark legal battle costing taxpayers £140,000.
Jon Platt, 46, refused to pay a £120 fine after he took his daughter out of school and jetted off on a seven-day family holiday to Florida in 2015.
His case had been backed by the High Court but the Supreme Court - the highest court in the land - overruled the decision.
It was sent back to magistrates where it first started two years ago in the fraught legal battle costing taxpayers £140,000.
The Department for Education has footed the bill, which is enough to pay six teachers for a year.
Platt was today convicted of failing to secure his daughter's regular attendance at school in a hearing at Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court.
He was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £2,000 costs plus a £20 surcharge.
The dad said afterwards: "This is the end for me now, this has gone on for far too long and far too much money has been spent by me and the taxpayer.
JON PLATT'S £140K LEGAL BATTLE
April 12, 2015: Jon Platt takes his seven-year-old to Florida in term time until April 20 because it was a trip with 17 members of his family and it was the only week they could all attend. She misses a week of school.
October 16, 2015: Mr Platt, who runs a PPI claims company, spends £1,000 of his own money to overturn £120 fine issued by Isle of Wight Council.
May 13, 2016: Mr Platt wins the case in the High Court after his local council's appeal fails.
December 21, 2016: Supreme Court grants council bosses a final appeal over the case, which they have already lost twice.
January 31, 2017: Supreme Court case starts - Mr Platt, having paid for many of the legal costs himself, is granted legal aid. If he wins the case a crackdown on school absences ordered in 2013 by Michael Gove will be left in tatters.
April 6, 2017: Judges rule in the bombshell case and say he may have broken the law.
June 22, 2017: It emerges the two-year battle has cost taxpayers £140,000.
June 23, 2017: Magistrates fine the dad £2,200 for taking his daughter out of school.
"I've spent close to £30,000, a Freedom of Information request found £140,000 has been spent by the taxpayer, but if you include the Supreme Court legal costs I think it isn't far off a quarter of a million.
"Way too much money has been spent but I'm not going to appeal it. I don't agree with the magistrates' decision but I'm going to respect it.
"I'm sure there's parents out there that hate me and I'm sure there's some who think I'm a hero. But at the end of the day I turned up to court to say not guilty to an offence I'm not guilty of. But I will respect their decision and not appeal it."
His lawyers had argued that his continued prosecution is unfair and unjust in the eyes of the law and appealed for it to be thrown out.
Paul Greatorex QC, defending Platt, said documents from the school were "completely vague" and it was not made clear that if he took her on an unauthorised holiday he would receive a fixed penalty notice and be prosecuted if he did not pay it.
Giving the judgement, magistrate Jeannie Walker said: "The circumstances of this case fall squarely into that breach of school rules."
Isle of Wight Council brought the challenge in a high-profile case involving businessman Platt, who took his seven-year-old daughter on a seven-day family trip to Disney World in Florida in April 2015.
He says he did not choose the date to save money but had a problem because his other kids go to a different school with different holidays.
The council prosecuted Platt after he refused to pay a £60 penalty.
But local magistrates found there was no case to answer and threw the case out, so the local authority appealed to the High Court in London.
Two senior judges upheld the magistrates' decision and declared that Mr Platt was not acting unlawfully because his daughter had a good overall attendance record of over 92 per cent.
They said the magistrates were entitled to take into account the "wider picture" of the child's attendance record outside of the dates she was absent on the holiday.
The decision caused a surge in term-time bookings all over England as councils were left unsure if they should apply strict rules introduced in a truancy crackdown in 2013.
It means school heads can only give permission for absences in "exceptional circumstances", and parents who flout the rules face fines or even jail.