Deadbeat dad uses double to dodge daughter’s maintenance

A dad tried to dodge paying maintenance for his daughter by sending another man to take a paternity test on his behalf.

Terrence Bradley claimed that another man had fathered his daughter after the Child Support Agency decreed that his maintenance payments should rise to £235, from the £50 he had previously been paying.

In an effort to hoodwink the CSA, help was sought from his cousin Glenn Hart. The 29-year-old, posing as Bradley, undertook a DNA test. He volunteered two samples before signing a declaration with Terrence Bradley’s name.

When Sarah McCabe, Bradley’s ex partner, was told that he was not the father of their child, she cried foul. The switch was discovered when she was shown a picture of Hart masquerading as Bradley, and it led to the pair being hauled before Teesside Crown Court.

Judge Patrick Palmer condemned the couple, stating:

“This was a planned attempt to avoid the responsibility you had to pay for the maintenance of this child.”

“If that wasn’t bad enough, you must have caused the mother of this child, your former girlfriend, untold upset when she was told that you were not the father of her child.”

“That was a mean and nasty act to do.”

The pair came clean and admitted to their fraud. Bradley was handed down three month’s jail time, suspended for 12 months, and a year’s supervision, whilst Hart was given a year’s conditional discharge.

Bradley’s lawyer, Shaun Dryden, told the Crown Court in Teesside how Bradley was furious at the way the CSA had dealt with him.

Rod Hunt, representing Hart, said of his client:

“There’s no reason other than misguided loyalty why he was persuaded to do this stupid thing.”

The two men were also each hit with a £300 fine.