ESSEX County Council will discontinue legal action against the parents of a child at Chancellor Park Primary School in Chelmsford after the family emigrated to America.

City worker James Haymore, 34, and his wife Dana, 32, refused to pay the £120 fine after they took their 11-year-old son Toby out o the school for six days without authorisation from headteacher Claire Mills. The family then went to a family memorial service in California at the end of December.

The fine was not paid within the required time period, leading to an initial court hearing earlier this year.

This was the first high-profile case of its kind to go before the courts since former Education Secretary Michael Gove introduced tough new term-time rules last year.

Headteachers can only grant children leave in “special circumstances”.

Councillor Ray Gooding, in charge of education, said: “We have had to take a decision based on the public interest of pursuing a case where the family have emigrated and are no longer being educated in an Essex school.

“This is an unusual situation but we have chosen to be pragmatic and accept that continuing with the prosecution serves little purpose and will cost the council money.

“We take unauthorised absence very seriously and support the principle of the Government’s strengthening of the rules in September 2013, which meant that term-time absence had to be authorised by head teachers and only in exceptional circumstances. It is extremely important to remember that in this case, the school followed the policy to the letter.”

A spokesperson from Chancellor Park Primary School said: “Chancellor Park Primary takes school attendance very seriously and following government guidance only authorises term time holidays in exceptional circumstances.

“We adhered to the law in this case, passing to the local authority to progress the fines. The matter of dropping the legal case against Mr and Mrs Haymore is not one for the school and will not result in any change to our attendance policies.”