Paid £11,000 over 4 years turns out i'm not the father, what can I do?

Poshsalt

Hi,

Hopefully someone can help or advise.

This is asked for a friend not me.

My friend slept with someone, they had a baby, he didnt sign the birth certificate but people phoned him up to pay child support.

So 4 years later he gets the balls to do a DNA test and it turns out its not his, its calculated its £11,000 he paid in child care.

He was also on anxiaty tablets by a doctor for worrying about if this child was his or not.

We also think the birth certificate was forged as he didnt sign it.

How does he go about getting this back? Solicitor? Laywer? What?

Gavin83

Wow, what a mess. Firstly he didn't need to sign the birth certificate to be liable for child support but if he had any doubt he should have lodged it when the contact was first made. The DNA test could have been done at that point and it would have solved a lot of heartache and problems now.

However it's a bit late for the above. In the current situation he needs to tell the CSA if he hasn't already. They'll refund any money paid after being notified but nothing from before. Ultimately if he wants that money back he'll need to take her to court so tell him to speak to a solicitor. 

Poshsalt

Ok thanks Gavin, yeah its a mess, my gf and I bought a private DNA test at the start for him, she didnt want to go near us or him, so we now know why.

AskAsk

here is a link to a similar story that you may be interested in

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8466583/Father-forced-pay-child-maintenance-finding-daughter-ISNT-14-years.html

CookieMonster

The money is (probably) gone. Even if he has evidence of fraud, I doubt anything would come of it.
The only upside is that he found out after 4 years and not 18 years.
Best check the laws via a solicitor that he isn't further liable for the child (as he would be in some US states, I'm not sure what English/Scottish law is on the matter).

TBagpuss

I agree with Cookie Monster that his chances of recovering the money are low.
It would in theory be possible to try to sue the mother, however, to succeed he would need to be able to show that:

• She explicitly / formally represented that he was the father, with the intent the representation will be acted on
• She knew at the time that she made that representation that it was untrue
• He suffered loss or damage as a result

Obviously one issue would be whether he was able to prove that his ex knew he wasn't the father, as opposed to suspecting it. 
On a practical level, he would also need to consider whether there was any hope of recovering any money from his ex, if he did sue her and succeed

burlingtonfl6

In the states you can be held financially responsible for a child that isn't yours and put in prison if you refuse to pay!
Someone, please try and justify that.

Gavin83

There was actually a similar case a few years back. Guy had been paying for 'his' child, had paid something like £25k over to his ex and then discovered the child wasn't his at all. He did receive a lot of criticism (rightly or wrongly!) but ultimately get all the money back. I'll try and find a link to the case.

The sad thing is in cases like this it's the child that loses out the most. I expect the mothers don't give nearly enough thought to this aspect.

CookieMonster

Gavin83 said:

 He did receive a lot of criticism (rightly or wrongly!) but ultimately get all the money back. 

Wrongly. Not his child, not his responsibility.

Retireby40

Should get every single penny of his money back. Its a disgrace. The child's mother knew full well there was a good chance he wasn't the dad but withheld that information. The man had no idea nor could have had any idea. 

Surely the CSA or some other organisation can demand the real father to pay towards the child with the other man recieving a small amount each month until the money is paid back.

ZaSa1418

He didn't need to sign the birth certificate to be liable for maintenance.
I assume this was a private arrangement for child maintenance rather than using the CSA/CMS?