A WOMAN abandoned her 14-year-old daughter for six weeks with just £100 and a fridge-full of food while she visited her toyboy lover abroad, a court has heard.

The woman, who cannot be identified, left the country between April and June last year to visit her boyfriend in his homeland to arrange a British visa for him and because "it was cheaper than going for four weeks".

She told Welshpool Magistrates' Court in Mid Wales that she stocked her freezer with pizza, oven chips and microwave meals before she went abroad.

She also claimed she arranged for a neighbour and her ex-husband, who is also the girl's father, to look after her. She denies wilfully causing her daughter to be neglected and abandoned in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health.

The trial heard that out of the girl's £100 allowance, £60 was spent almost immediately paying for school dinners for the period her mother was away.

The teenager told the court she spent most of the £40 left over on "clothes and CDs".

Social services were alerted to the girl's plight after only two days, and arranged for her father, who said he was unaware his daughter had been left alone, to look after her for the remainder of her mother's holiday.

The case was adjourned until February 8.