A MUM faces having to pay out more than £600 for failing to ensure her 15-year-old son regularly attended Dartmouth Academy.

Nicola Rafferty, of Britannia Avenue, Dartmouth, was not in court when she was found guilty by Newton Abbot magistrates on Wednesday of failing to send her son to the school regularly between September last year and this February.

She was fined £440 and ordered to pay £120 costs plus a £44 victim surcharge.

Two other parents, facing similar charges, had their cases dismissed at the request of the prosecuting authority, Devon County Council.