A mother was forced to become an amateur investigator after her ex-partner vanished days after their son’s birth, then orchestrated an elaborate DNA test fraud to escape nearly £94,000 in child maintenance payments.
Chelsea Millar, a mother-of-three, saw Sheldon Brown and his accomplice, Robert Patel, sentenced at Guildford Crown Court after the pair admitted conspiracy to defraud.
Brown, a 26-year-old lorry driver, received a 50-week prison term, while Patel, 38, who worked as a lab technician at a doctor’s surgery, was handed 33 weeks behind bars.
“I don’t think I ever really knew who Sheldon was as a person,” Ms Millar said.
“I haven’t spoken to him since the day he walked out on us but if I did, I’d tell him he’s missing out.”
The pair met through a mutual friend in June 2021, with Ms Millar already raising two children, Scarlett and Mason.
Within a month of meeting, Ms Millar discovered she was pregnant, and Brown appeared delighted by the news.
However, by January 2022 and with baby Louie due in March, Brown’s behaviour shifted noticeably.
He became increasingly absent, citing gym visits or stays at his aunt’s home, though he continued attending baby scans.
Despite Ms Millar’s concerns, Brown insisted nothing was wrong, and she attributed his distance to pre-birth nerves.
A wife rumbled her partner’s scheme to fake a DNA test so he could escape paying a £94K child maintenance bill | GETTY
He was present for the caesarean section, cutting the umbilical cord and video-calling relatives to introduce his newborn son.
The day after the birth, Brown took Ms Millar to his mother Katie’s home to recover from surgery, then said he was popping to the shop.
“That was the last time I saw him,” Ms Millar said.
Brown changed his phone number and deleted all social media accounts, leaving both Ms Millar and his own mother unable to reach him.
A friend soon spotted him at a soft play centre with another woman and child, revealing he had been conducting an affair throughout the pregnancy.
Ms Millar registered Louie’s birth in June 2022 and filed a claim with the Child Maintenance Service, only to receive correspondence a month later stating Brown was disputing paternity.
The man and his accomplice were sentenced at Guildford Crown Court
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“I was half expecting it because of his disappearing act,” she said.
Both parties underwent DNA testing, but the official results declared Brown was not the father, closing her case entirely.
“I was so confused, I sat down that evening looking at the letter, thinking: ‘Well done Sheldon, you got me’,” Ms Millar recalled.
Determined to expose the deception, she contacted multiple testing companies seeking to understand how the system could be manipulated.
A staff member at one company suggested she ask Brown’s mother to provide a DNA sample, which Ms Millar arranged.
The grandmother test confirmed Katie was indeed Louie’s biological grandmother, proving Brown had fathered the child.
Armed with this evidence, Ms Millar returned to the CMS and was interviewed by financial investigators within a fortnight.
The investigation eventually uncovered that Patel, who knew Brown’s aunt, had provided his own saliva sample, forged a GP’s signature, and used an official stamp to falsify the documentation.
Patel’s previous conviction for stealing £1,600 from a disabled person meant his DNA was already on police databases.
The scheme would have allowed Brown to avoid an estimated £94,000 in maintenance payments until Louie turned 16, based on CMS calculations using his earnings.
“When Judge Catherine Hartley sent them to prison, they both started crying, tears were falling down their faces,” Ms Millar told The Sun.
She now receives just £13 monthly, with Brown owing £6,500 in arrears.
Ms Millar has called for stricter regulations requiring parents to use only doctors recommended by testing companies rather than selecting their own.
“How many other men have done this? How many women has this happened to?” she asked.
Louie, who turns four in March, has begun asking about his father.
“When he’s old enough to fully understand, I’ll tell him the truth,” Ms Millar said. “I’ve kept it all in a folder for him.”