Simon Mullane, a former chairman of Poole Conservative Association, wrecked scores of lives by telling men that they had fathered children when they had not.

Mullane, 39, charged between £150 and £600 for a DNA test, which was supposed to be carried out by a laboratory in Canada. For each test he took a swab, but threw it into a black plastic bin-bag in his office and sent the client a form letter confirming that he was the father of the child.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Mullane made nearly £23,000 in fees from the spurious tests, but now faces legal action from dozens of his victims.

Some victims paid out thousands in maintenance to the Child Support Agency as a result of the false information. One man’s marriage broke up because his wife thought that he had fathered a child.

Others formed relationships with children that were not theirs.

Mullane, who drives a Rolls Royce and has homes in Poole and Granada, Spain, pleaded guilty to 16 counts of theft between May 1 and August 25, 2002. He asked for 102 other offences to be taken into consideration.

After the sentence, Simon Tull, 33, said that it should have been longer. Mr Tull, from Southampton, believed for almost a year that he was the father of a three-year-old girl, until police told him she was not his.

He said: “You can’t put a figure on the pain he caused me. It was a heartless fraud and he deserves a lot more. I had a year bonding with a child I thought was my daughter.

“I felt sick, as if my life had been twisted and thrown away. I feel as though I have lost my family. I don’t think I will ever see the little girl again.”

Mullane, who is married with a two-year-old son, advertised his company on the internet. In Britain men cannot get a DNA paternity test without the mother’s consent, but Mullane exploited a loophole in the law which allows the tests to be carried out abroad. However, although he received £22,740 in payment, Mullane did not send off 118 of the samples. When police raided his premises in Poole, they found the black bin-liner full of untested swabs.

After the hearing Detective Constable Martin Farrington, of Bournemouth CID, said: “Mullane preyed on decent people’s genuine worries and their very human need to know whether they were or were not the father of a child. It is quite shocking how this man played with people’s lives. It was totally callous.”

Antonia Jamieson, for Mullane, said that he had more orders than he could cope with. She said: “His crimes were driven out of desperation. He is utterly sickened by what he has done.”

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