Man jailed for faking DNA test to avoid paying child support for two sons

Stephen Dixon has been jailed for 18 months
CPS
Rebecca Speare-Cole16 September 2020
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A man has been jailed for faking a DNA test so that he could avoid paying child support for his two sons.

Steven Dixon, 36, asked a friend to take a DNA mouth swab so he could send it to the Child Maintenance Service on July 6, 2018, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Two women had applied to the Child Maintenance Service in 2015 and 2016 to request support, claiming that Dixon was the father of their sons.

After being contacted by the service, Mr Dixon ordered a DNA testing kit, which he asked a friend to then take.

The 36-year-old pleaded guilty on Tuesday to three counts of Making or Supplying Articles for Use in Frauds at Chester Crown Court.

He was then jailed for 18 months.

The 36-year-old pleaded guilty on Tuesday to three counts of Making or Supplying Articles for Use in Frauds at Chester Crown Court
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Dixon had submitted the fake swab to the Child Maintenance Service with a form stating that the sample had been taken by Dr Jon Kisler at the Quays on Thelwall New Road in Warrington. The form appeared to be signed by the doctor.

In a witness statement, Dr Kisler said he had not taken the sample or completed the form and the signature on it was not his. He had also never worked at that surgery.

As a result of the fake test, the Child Maintenance Service contacted the mothers, saying that Dixon was not the biological father and could not be asked to provide financial support.

An investigation was launched after the two women contested the findings.

Meanwhile, a DNA test of the two boys showed them to be half-brothers.

Dixon wrote to the Child Maintenance Service in November, saying: “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.”

Later that month, a speculative search of the National DNA database by police found the submitted mouth swab to match with the DNA of a man called Kenny Jones.

Jones was arrested and said that Dixon had asked him to provide the swab so that he could send it to his alcoholic father, to try and prove he wasn’t his son.

No money was exchanged between the men.

Dixon was arrested in July 2019 and interviewed but initially denied the claims, saying the doctor and the GP practice manager were liars.

In custody, a DNA sample was taken which matched that of the two boys.

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."

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