Dad faked DNA test to avoid paying child support for two sons
A dad has been jailed after faking a DNA test so he could avoid paying child support to the mothers of his two children.
Steven Dixon, 39, from Warrington, went to ‘extensive lengths’ to avoid his responsibilities, asking a friend to do a swab test for him in order to disprove two women’s claims for financial support.
The ‘cheat’ even accused the two mums and the Child Maintenance Service of ‘harassment’ after staff at the organisation fought to get to the bottom of the case.
Dixon sent off a form to the Child Maintenance Service stating his sample had been taken by Dr Jon Kisler at a surgery called The Quays on Thelwall New Road in Warrington on 6 July 2018.
The organisation then contacted the two mothers saying he was not the biological father and could not be expected to provide support. They both contested the results and an investigation was launched.
Suspicions were raised when a DNA test on the two children showed them to be half-brothers – but Dixon accused the Child Maintenance Service of inflicting ‘further trauma’ on him by pursuing the case.
Writing to the organisation on 16 November 2018, he said: ‘The pursuit of myself from both you and my ex-partners is now becoming tantamount to harassment… this pursuit is now affecting my own life, as if it wasn’t traumatic enough on both occasions to find out neither of these children were mine at the time, when I believed them to be, to now having to re-live it all again and even on having it proved by yourselves by DNA that they are not mine, to then still be being pursued. It is simply not acceptable to be allowed to continue.’
On 23 November 2018, a speculative search of the National DNA database discovered that the mouth swab Dixon had submitted matched with the DNA of a man called Kenny Jones.
Jones was arrested, but told police he had given the swab for free so Dixon could send it to his ‘alcoholic’ father to ‘prove’ he wasn’t his son.
In another witness statement, Dr Kisler said he had not completed or signed the form Dixon had sent in, and had also never worked at the surgery the dad claimed to have been tested at.
Dixon named the doctor and GP practice manager ‘liars’ when he was arrested on 18 July 2019 – but a second DNA test soon revealed he was the father of the two boys.
He was sentenced to 18 months in jail on Tuesday after pleading guilty to three counts of Making or Supplying Articles for Use in Frauds.
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Senior Crown Prosecutor Maqsood Khan, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire’s Fraud Unit said: ‘Steven Dixon is a liar and a cheat who has gone to extensive lengths to deny the parentage of his two sons.
‘Investigations showed that he had been at the birth of both of the boys and his signature was on their birth certificates. Indeed he seems to have played a part in their lives for a period.
‘But that changed and he has now turned to criminality to avoid his obligations to his children. His apparent indignation at the work of the Child Maintenance Service to get to the truth is audacious to say the least.
‘His deception has no doubt caused distress and hurt to the women and their children and he is now behind bars. The Crown Prosecution Service hopes that this case shows that those who try and lie and cheat their way out of their responsibilities will face the consequences.’
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