Man ordered to pay £20k for ‘daughter’ he didn’t know existed

A MAN ordered to cough up £20,000 for a "daughter" he didn't know existed has blasted the girl's mum as a "money grabbing b****" and insists he will NEVER take a DNA test.

Ross Mclaughlan, 55, from Stockton-on-Tees, has been paying child support for the girl for the past eight years.

To date he has had £10,000 taken from his wages and been told he owes a further £10,000.

But having lost his job as an oil rigger he is now refusing to pay any more money.

Speaking to the Sun Online today Ross said: "They've denied my rights, taken my wages, taken away my pension and I've lost my job. It's disgusting how they have done this. It's only about their money and greed.

"I'm livid that these people can do this to another person. These people are money-hunting cheats. No way am I paying anymore for someone else's child, no way."

'WHY SHOULD I?'
Ross, who has never married, insists he has no recollection of the woman who claimed to be the mum of his daughter.

When he requested a copy of the girl's birth certificate he found the section headed "father" didn't have his name on it, but instead a man with the same surname as the girl and the woman who had made the claim against him.

As a result the 55-year-old is adamant he will never take a DNA test.

He told the Sun Online: "The reason I won't take a DNA test is because I don't know of any reason why [I should].

"I've had no contact with the mother or child and when I checked it out, the child's parents were boldly on the birth certificate. End of issue.

"I won't have a DNA test. Not ever. There is a birth certificate saying exactly what the DNA test is asking. It's pretty simple, that's the declaration of parentage.

"The money-grabbing b**** just wants to disrespect the declaration of parentage, the birth certificate, so she can claim somebody else's money."

EIGHT-YEAR NIGHTMARE
Ross' nightmare started eight years ago when he received a letter from the Child Maintenance Service informing him he was dad to a teenage girl, for whom he was financially responsible.

At first he tried to ignore it but then, worried that kicking up a fuss might land him in trouble with his job, he paid up the £100 a month sum.

However, four years ago Ross got another letter from the CMS telling him the amount he had to fork out was increasing to £320 a month, leaving him with an income of £900, after tax.

Having obtained the girl's birth certificate he wrote to the CMS hoping that would be enough to help resolve the issue.

But they wrote back to him saying that wasn’t sufficient proof that man was the child’s biological dad and so the money continued to come out of his account.

To make matters worse, when his “daughter” turned 21 the organisation claimed he owed a further £10,000 in retrospective payments.

He said: "What's happened to me feels like extortion, something that would happen in a fascist state.

"I don't want to meet them. There's no issues to thrash out with the money. She obviously doesn't want me to have anything to do with her daughter.

"If this money-grabbing b**** had any intention of me having anything to do with her child then you'd have thought she would have reached out to me before she was 13.

"She would need security to stop me from punching her because she's ruined my career."

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions, which oversees the CMS, said he could not discuss individual cases but added: “We notify people before making deductions to ensure they have a chance to contest parentage. When parentage is disputed we look for conclusive proof such as a DNA test or a court declaration.

“A birth certificate can be used as evidence, but would be discounted if there’s a suggestion that it’s unreliable.”

Responding to Ross's claims the woman told the Daily Mail she became pregnant during a brief affair with Ross and gave birth to their daughter in June 1997.

Her ex-husband, suspecting the girl was not his, requested a DNA test, which confirmed his suspicions.

Meanwhile Ross's “daughter” said: “I do understand that he might be hurt by the way things have happened but my mum was not sure who my father was until I took the DNA test.

“I do wonder why, when he found out from the CSA that he had a child and started paying maintenance, he didn’t get in touch.”