A mother left her young children alone in the house to go and pick up a parcel from the Post Office.
The youngsters, both aged under 10, were abandoned for over an hour until concerned police arrived at their home to check on them.
They only attended at the family’s Lowerhouses home when the eldest daughter dialled 999 by mistake.
The children’s mother pleaded guilty to two charges of wilful assault, ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment or exposure of a child in a manner likely to cause them suffering or injury to health.
Kirklees magistrates warned her that she may be sent to jail after hearing that she committed an identical offence previously.
Vanessa Jones, prosecuting, said that the two children were left home alone on April 10 and would have not been able to get out in an emergency.
Their mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, left the address at 8am.
The older girl woke up at 8.30am and called her when she found her missing.
Mrs Jones said: “The defendant said that she had gone to collect a parcel and told her to go back to bed.
“Her daughter had trouble with the phone and as she was trying to turn it off dialled 999.
“She hung up but police traced the call and rang the little girl back who cancelled some of the calls.
“Then she answered one and told police that she’d rung by mistake.
“However, because it was a child police did go to the house.”
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Officers arrived at 9.03am and knocked on the door but nobody answered.
“They saw the curtains upstairs being moved and a police operator called the house again and told her to go and speak to the officers stood outside.
Then at 9.15am the children’s mother returned and told police that she’d been at the Post Office.
Mrs Jones said that while the youngsters were fit and well, they would not have been able to leave the house if they needed to.
She said: “The defendant said that there was a key to the back door but there was a bolt very high up and police felt that the children would have been unable to reach.”
Magistrates were told that the mum was prosecuted in 2014 for a similar matter and given a community order at crown court.
In mitigation Rachel Sharpe said that, while her client accepted that she did leave the children behind in the property, it was early in the morning.
She said: “She made the decision to go alone.
“The children were asleep in bed and it was raining outside.
“She knew that if she went first thing in the morning it would be a quiet journey.
“Luckily the children weren’t injured and this was short-term abandonment.”
Magistrates adjourned sentencing until July 23 so that a full pre-sentence report can be prepared.
They warned the defendant that all options would be considered, including custody and committal to crown court for sentencing.
