Five-year-old reportedly invoiced £15 for failing to turn up to friend's birthday party

Boy's father has claimed that the birthday boy's mother has now threatened court action

Not such a great birthday party? (Rex)

A five-year-old boy has been charged with £15 and his parents reportedly threatened with court action after he failed to go to a friend’s birthday party.

Alex Nash, from Plymouth, was verbally invited to a school-friend’s birthday party on a dry-ski slope, but when he decided not to attend – instead spending the day with his grandparents – his parents apparently had no means of contacting the mother who organised the party.

In the days following they attempted to apologise – until their son returned home with a brown envelope and a ‘no show fee’ invoice for £15.95 in his bag, the Plymouth Herald discovered.

“I thought it was a joke to begin with,” Alex’s father Derek Nash told the Plymouth Herald.

The brown envelope containing the invoice had been slipped into the child’s bag as he left school, via a teacher it is claimed.

Mr Nash, who works as a delivery driver, said he “couldn’t believe” the manner in which the money had been requested, although he emphasised that he understood the need to recoup the cost.

Alex has also claimed his former friend at Torpoint Nursery and Infant School will no longer play with him.