Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Man breaks new year in jail over mix-up in unpaid child support
Kaieteur News- A mix-up over unpaid child support totalling some $608,000 ended with a Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) man (name provided) breaking the new year in jail.
He was released from custody on Friday after the mix-up was sorted out by the Bartica Magistrates’ Court. Notwithstanding, the man still owes over $400,000. The man claimed that he had no prior knowledge of the extra debt and the Magistrate decided to be lenient, giving him a month to clear the debt.
The man’s troubles started on December 31, just after he left the backdam and went to pay his child support to the agreed collecting office (a police station) in Region Three.
Warrant for the unpaid child support.
“When I gone there… waiting to pay the money, dem hold on pon me,” the man recalled.
Kaieteur News understands that a warrant was issued for him on December 3, 2024, after he failed to pay some 76 weeks of child support totalling $608,000 in arrears.
The man said that he had no knowledge of the warrant because he was working in the interior and was left stunned that he owed so much money.
According him, the last time he went to pay child support, he owed the same amount and deposited at total of $460,000. That payment was made in September 2024, just days before he went into the backdam to work for Christmas season.
The man told Kaieteur News that despite producing receipts of the payments made, Police still locked him for four days. He was taken to court on Friday only to learn that the payments he had made in September were verified.
“Dem seh how it didn’t register in the system,” claimed the Tuschen man.
The court reportedly asked if he has the amount to cancel out the balance.
“I told them I got so much (he did not mention the amount),” the man said before adding that he was in for another surprise that left him heartbroken.
“Now dem telling me that I still owe some money from another time,” he continued.
Receipts of payments the man made in September
The man explained his situation to the Magistrate and was granted some amount of lenience. He was given a month to find the money.
Court documents seen by this media house show that the Tuschen man was summoned by his ex-common-law wife in 2021 to pay child support for one child at a rate of $8,000 per week.
However, it was only recently that the man learnt that the woman went behind his back and summoned him for a second child, requiring him to now pay $16,000 a week.
“How is that fair? I did get a chance to tell the Magistrate if I could pay that amount per week,” he said, while explaining he doesn’t even believe that both children are his own.
“I only accept the lil boy,” he continued.
The Tuschen man is now using the services of a lawyer to get the child support payment mix-up sorted out because he believes he is being robbed.
His first move is to get a DNA test done for the children after which he will seek visiting time.
“She don’t even allow me to see the children. The last time I call she to see the boy, she blocked me,” the man explained.
He will also petition the court to get a reduction in the child support fee.
He said, “You know how much is $16,000 per week? I don’t have a stable job and even the man with a normal job can’t afford that amount in these hard times.”
The man is also seeking a payment plan because he works mostly in the interior location and would sometimes spend months in the backdam.
While he is willing to pay child support, he is of the view that his “child mother” is being vindictive and only wants to see him pressured and behind bars.
“I used to send money from bush to her every month and take care of her good,” he said, while explaining that things went south after he decided to leave the woman and move-on in life.
“About a month after she summons me,” he told Kaieteur News.
(Man breaks new year in jail over mix-up in unpaid child support)
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