Former Mountie caught in fraudulent paternity scheme

On behalf of Kirk Montoute Dawson LLP posted in Family Law on Friday, July 25, 2014.

As we talked about last week, it can be very expensive to raise a child. Even married couples sometimes have a difficult time paying for all of their children’s expenses, so the thought of raising children without the help or financial support may seem impossible. Fortunately, when parents separate, they must also make provisions to pay child support.

In some situations, however, the parents were never together. There are a number of people in Calgary who have children without being in a relationship with the child’s other parent, but that does not mean they are not eligible for child support. The requirement to financially support a child remains, regardless of how involved or uninvolved a parent is with that child.

This makes a former Mountie’s efforts to avoid child support even more difficult to accept. While the officer says he did not want to claim paternity of his daughter or pay the child support he owed her mother because he did not want to damage his marriage (with a woman who was not the mother of his daughter), this is no excuse for failing to financially support a child.

According to The Toronto Star, the former British Columbia Mountie had an extramarital affair, and after his girlfriend became pregnant, he asked her to raise the child without him. After she sought social assistance, the province attempted to collect child support from the Mountie. When ordered to take a paternity test, he convinced a colleague to take the test on his behalf.

What he was not expecting was that the person to be tested had to be photographed.

Fortunately, it seems these antics coming to light have prompted the former Mountie to pay his child support arrears.

Source: The Toronto Star, “Former Mountie sentenced for faking paternity test,” Louise Dickson, July 19, 2014

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