Isle of Wight dad, Jon Platt will be on the stand at the Island Magistrates Court tomorrow morning (Friday) over the continuing school holiday fines case.
In April this year, Supreme Court judges ruled in favour of an appeal lodged by the Isle of Wight council for non payment of school absence fines (after Jon took his then six year old daughter out of school for a family holiday) and returned the case to the Isle of Wight Magistrates court.
‘Abuse of process’ argument
His barrister will be defending the case on an ‘abuse of process’ argument. If he wins the argument, the case stops. The government then have an opportunity to appeal to a higher court.
Jon Platt tells OnTheWight that the IWC will be paying their own legal bill on this one.
The case starts at 10am and is scheduled for a full day at the court.
Platt: “I will not plead guilty”
Jon told OnTheWight,
“I think it’s bizarre. I agree with my barrister that it’s the equivalent of being stopped driving 28mph in a 30mph speed zone, then two years later being told they’re setting the speed limit to 20mph and you’re being taken to court.
“I’m not confident I’ll win, but I will not plead guilty.”
Jon went on to say,
“There are tens of thousands of cases backed up in court around the UK that are now effectively facing retrospective prosecution.
“I think this is all fundamentally wrong.”
Image: © Tom Harrison/ Solent News & Photo Agency
