Cheating father sent his brother to take DNA test

A SCHEMING father who sent his brother to give a DNA sample t o avoid having to pay child maintenance narrowly avoided jail yesterday.

When Vernon Poppleton, 33, was asked to prove he was the father to the young girl, he sent his brother Victor to give a DNA sample.

Married Poppleton fathered the child in 2009 when he was having an affair with her mother.

He then avoided the Child Support Agency (CSA) until it caught up with him more than a year later in February 2011.

In a rarely seen case in a criminal court in Scotland, Poppleton from Kinning Park, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to committing f raud by attempting to get i mmunity f rom paying child maintenance.

Yesterday at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Poppleton narrowly avoided jail and was given a community payback order.

He will have to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work within eight months and stay at his bail address between 9pm and 5am for six months.

Sheriff Lindsay Wood told him: ‘Just, and no more, I am prepared to impose an alternative.

‘What you did here and what you got your brother to do was so wrong on so many levels.

‘Not only have you distressed your then wife, you have also distressed the mother of your daughter and done a complete disservice to your daughter.

‘You were doing this so that your wife didn’t find out. This is a conniving act on your part, to present someone else’s DNA but you were found out and rightly so.’

The former soldier fathered the now six-year-old girl in September 2009 when he had the affair.

The court was told he disputed he was the father when the girl’s mother contacted the CSA and started the procedures to track him down.

Procurator fiscal depute Alan McArthur said: ‘The accused disputed responsibility and said that he was not the father and he was invited to Pollok Health Centre to have a DNA test.

‘It’s now clear what happened is his brother actually attended.’

The court heard Victor took passport photographs with him when giving his sample, which were later shown to the girl’s mother, who said it was not the right person.

It was after that the police became involved.

Defence lawyer Neil Kilcoyne told the court Poppleton is repaying money owed to the CSA and giving money to his daughter’s mother.

He said his client served in the Armed Forces and suffered posttraumatic stress when he returned from Afghanistan in 2010.

Poppleton’s brother was charged with assisting him but his not guilty plea to a charge was accepted at an earlier hearing.

‘So wrong on so many levels’