The parents of a teenager have been fined more than £1,000 each after their son's attendance at school fell below 10%.

The youngster had missed so many lessons that Kent County Council took the 13-year-old lad's parents to court.

The pair, from Gravesend, failed to appear in court and were both fined £1,240 each in their absence.

The parents said they were educating the 13-year-old at home but gave no evidence of that and never took him off roll at the secondary school he was supposed to be attending.

The parents also claimed they wanted the boy to attend a different school but never applied to any other.

Cabinet member for children, young people and education, Roger Gough, said the couple had not accepted their responsibility to make sure he was attending school for at least 95% of the time.

He added: "This case highlights the importance we place on children attending school regularly, it is crucial to a child’s education that they make full use of the education on offer to them.

"It is the parents’ responsibility to get their child to school and we will support schools to prosecute parents who do not do this" - Cabinet member for children, young people and education at KCC Roger Gough

"It is the parents’ responsibility to get their child to school and we will support schools to prosecute parents who do not do this.

"In this instance the changes we made to our Elective Home Education policy in 2015 meant we could insist on a meeting with these parents. As they did not attend we were able to take further action.

"These were the very reasons we strengthened our policy. Too many children slip through the net when their parents take them out of school when they have low attendance and say they will home educate them.

"Children should be in school for 190 days a year. This child only attended 19 days and the previous year he missed 65 days, this is totally unacceptable."