A mother left her young son alone in McDonald’s for half-an-hour – while she went shopping.

The woman used the fast-food restaurant as a creche for the boy, aged about six, while she took advantage of the sales in Gravesend town centre.

She left him sitting by himself in the busy New Road branch with money for lunch at about 12.15pm on Monday.

The woman, thought to be in her 20s and of oriental appearance, later told staff she did not want to take him around the streets in freezing temperatures.

Staff became worried when the boy – who said his mother told him she would be just 10 minutes – came to the counter twice, once for a drink and then for food.

Duty manager Jessi Ranbwanha, 32, said: "One of my staff asked if he was okay and he said, ‘No, my mum has left me.’ He didn’t have a mobile number for her so we just sat with him until she turned up.

"The woman apologised when she arrived, but she didn’t think she’d done anything wrong. She said she didn’t want to take him around the shops in the cold. We told her not to do it again."

The woman arrived just as staff were about to phone police, possibly saving herself from being hauled through the courts.

In a similar case in December, a Chinese woman living in Dartford was spared jail for leaving her baby home alone while she took driving lessons and went to the shops.

She admitted leaving the infant on a bed without guard rails up to four times. But pity was taken on her because it was claimed such behaviour "happens all the time" where she comes from.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons and came to the UK from China several years ago, sobbed as she admitted child neglect.

Sentencing her to a two-year conditional discharge and ordering her to attend parenting classes, magistrate David Graeme said: "We are conscious that you come from a different culture, but this doesn’t excuse your behaviour."