Mother jailed after conning 'father' for a decade The court heard how the pair had been together for less than a year when they split up in late 1997. Weeks later, the woman rang the man and they met at her parents' home. She told him she was pregnant and claimed that he was the father. The man spent three days with her in hospital, awaiting the birth. Wyn Lloyd Jones, prosecuting counsel, said: "He thought he had a daughter and immediately began to treat her as such. His family treated her as such. The real father was kept out of the picture. Soon after the birth the man formed a relationship with another woman who he later married and had children with - but the deception continued. "The fraud that took place over the years deprived him and his family of a huge amount of money which otherwise they would have been able to enjoy," Mr Lloyd Jones said. He paid nursery and school fees, medical expenses and the mum's £3,000 credit card debt. There were times when he struggled to pay. He had to work long hours to make ends meet," the prosecutor added. It wasn't until 2008 that two mutual friends, one of who had known the truth all along, told the victim. "Perhaps not surprisingly he felt shocked and numb," Mr Lloyd Jones said. One of the friends had witnessed the defendant and her sister arguing when she was pregnant - the sister wanting the victim to be told he wasn't the real dad. The defendant had told the friend that the man had money and could support the child. She had been to a private school, she wanted the child to have the same. She also wanted expensive presents for the girl, now 13, to keep up with school friends. After the bombshell, a lengthy legal battle ensued and DNA testing was ordered by a court. Jailing the woman, the judge said: "The tentacles of your deception have spread emotionally far and wide. The plea by your daughter to avoid sending you to prison is heart-rending and one can understand why she makes it. But the court must perform a public duty to punish those who behave in this seriously criminally wrong way as you have done to a large scale over a lengthy period. I don't feel I can properly accede to those pleas put forward for leniency to avoid an immediate custodial sentence. Elen Owen, defending, said her client had large debts and was in no position to repay the money. The fraud wasn't financially motivated, she said. Asked by the judge for the reason it occurred, counsel replied: "Because she was on a roller-coaster and there was no right time to tell somebody who thought he was the father of the child. She was in an almost impossible position so far as coming clean.