A man's attempt to evade child support by sending a friend to take a DNA test in his place unravelled after the friend attached his own photograph to the paperwork. Stephen Lord, 27, persuaded Simon Brooks, 31, to impersonate him for a paternity test, hoping a negative result would absolve him of financial responsibility.
The scheme fell apart when the child's mother was shown the photo linked to the DNA sample during a video call with the Child Maintenance Service and immediately recognised it as Brooks, not Lord. Judge John Thackray KC at Hull Crown Court described the plan as 'an act of gross stupidity doomed to failure' and told Lord he should be 'thoroughly ashamed'.
Both men admitted conspiracy to defraud the Department for Work and Pensions between September 2022 and March 2024. Brooks also pleaded guilty to fraud by impersonating Lord in November 2022. The court heard that the fraud deprived the mother of £4,637 in child maintenance, though the sum will be repaid; had it succeeded, the loss could have reached £29,132.
Lord, of Hull, was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and 150 hours of unpaid work. Brooks, of Leicester, received a nine-month suspended sentence and 100 hours of unpaid work. The judge noted the seriousness of the offence but accepted the men had no prior convictions.
