Man who found son was not his gets 22,000 pounds

London: A retired stockbroker yesterday won more than £22,000 (Dh147,180) in damages from his former girlfriend after she tricked him into paying out for a child that was not his.

At the High Court, judge Sir John Blofeld described the woman as "deliberately and wilfully fraudulent".

The participants cannot be named. For five years the woman, a City worker known as B, convinced the stockbroker, known as A, that the child was his. He paid more than £40,000 (Dh267,600) in nursery and school fees, and £2,000 (Dh13,380) in nappies alone.

The court heard A had acted as a doting father who changed nappies and sang the boy to sleep. In 2002, as the relationship started breaking up, B's solicitors sent him a letter demanding a DNA test to prove he was not the father.

Today the judge awarded A £7,500 (Dh50,175) for his distress and £15,000 (Dh100,350) for holidays and meals he had with B while she was deceiving him. But the judge rejected further demands for more than £55,000 (Dh367,950) for cash spent on the child.

A said he went to court because "I felt very strongly about being taken for a ride". He said B had reassured him he was the child's father up to 130 times.

Eventually she admitted to having had sex with another man, but claimed it was because sex with A was "sporadic and unfulfilling." The woman already has a daughter by an older man from an earlier fling, the court heard. The judge called her evidence "unconvincing" and "illogical".