A MUM left her two little children home alone for four hours while she went shopping, a jury was told.

Burnley Crown Court heard receipts showed the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went shopping at Farmfoods, the British Heart Foundation and Subway in Blackburn while her children, aged two and five, were left unattended at home.

When police went to investigate, the woman is alleged to have said her estranged husband had been looking after the children.

And when that was proved not to be the case the woman is alleged to have contacted a man, named in court as Bashar, and asked him to tell police he was looking after the children when she was out.

She is then said to have written a letter to the police and social services purporting to be Bashar saying that he had been looking after the children.

Prosecuting Charles Brown said: “Events came to light on June 22, last year, when a council refuse collection driver called at the defendant’s house in Blackburn. He was following up on a complaint that a bin had not been emptied. He knocked on the door but it wasn’t answered. But the only response he got was a small boy appearing at the downstairs window wearing shorts and no top. Because the refuse collector was unable to bring any adult to the door or raise any neighbour when he went to check with them he contacted his supervisor who contacted the police.”

The jury was told a PCSO arrived around 12.30pm and when he knocked on the door the only response he got was from the two small children. One of the children said his mother would be angry when she got back home.

Mr Brown said that before officers forced down the door to rescue the children the defendant returned to the address and confirmed who she was.

Mr Brown said: “She said she had only popped out and at that time she said she left them with her husband who had rung her five minutes earlier to say he had to go out. This didn’t fit with the information they knew.”

The prosecutor said that police asked to look at the defendant’s phone and there was no record of any call to her husband. Her husband called her mobile phone while police were still at the scene and also denied he had been looking after the children. He had claimed to be in Bristol but later examination showed he was in fact in Blackburn, the jury heard.

Officers searched the house and found three receipts - one from Farmfoods time stamped time stamped 9.12am, one from the British Heart Foundation time stamped 12.18pm and one from Subway time stamped 12.51pm.

Mr Brown said: “When she was interviewed by police, and at this stage the receipts had not been found, the defendant claimed she had visited the British Heart Foundation first thing. She had left Bashar, who she knew, at the house. She claimed she had asked him to come round to do some decorating. She said he had looked after the children on many occasions before.

“The prosecution say that the suggestion there was anybody else in the house is completely false. Bashar has been spoken to. He knew the defendant although he has never been in her house.”

The woman, in her 40s, denies two counts of cruelty to a child and perverting the course of justice.

(PROCEEDING)