A HAMPSHIRE man has today told how his life was ruined by a con man who faked the results of his paternity test.

Simon Tull, pictured above right, spent a year bonding with a girl he believed was his daughter before police uncovered the DNA fraud and broke the shattering news that he was not her father.

Mr Tull was just one of 118 clients duped by 39-year-old Simon Mullane.

Yesterday Mullane was jailed for three years for the £23,000 scam. He is likely to have to pay his victims thousands of pounds in compensation for the anguish he has caused them.

Mr Tull, 33, said the jail sentence was not long enough and no amount of money could make up for what Mullane did.

He said: "I would like him to have got a lot longer. He will probably be out in half that time. It was a heartless fraud and he deserves a lot more."

Mr Tull, of Bitterne, Southampton, paid Mullane's company £150 after a former girlfriend told him he may be the father of her daughter.

He sent off do-it-yourself swabs and Mullane's reply confirmed that the samples had been tested in Canada and there was a 99 per cent chance he was the father.

Mr Tull said: "I had to get my head around the fact I was the father of a child and I had to tell my family about it all, which wasn't easy to do.

"I had a year bonding with a child I thought was my daughter before learning that the tests had just been made up.

"The police contacted me and said they had found my swabs in bins outside the company premises. I was devastated.

"I felt sick, as if my life had been twisted and thrown away. I don't think I will ever see the little girl again."

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that other victims had paid out hundreds of pounds in maintenance costs to the Child Support Agency as a result of Mullane's false information.

In one case a male client's marriage broke up because his wife thought he had fathered a love-child.

Mullane set up the Internet firm High Profile DNA in 2001 at an address in Poole, Dorset.

The court was told that he charged clients £600 to have DNA swabs from them and children they might have fathered analysed.

However, Mullane didn't bother to send them away to the Toronto laboratory. He threw them in a bin liner and wrote letters to his victims making up the results.

Mullane, who has homes in Poole and Spain, pleaded guilty to 16 counts of theft between May 1 and August 25, 2002.

He asked for another 102 offences to be taken into consideration.

Antonia Jamieson, mitigating, said that after setting up the business Mullane became swamped with orders and could not cope.

She said: "His crimes were driven out of desperation. He is utterly sickened by what he has done. He has already paid out to some of those concerned in excess of £30,000."

Jailing him, Judge Lester Boothman said: "My sentence must reflect the consequences that have been brought about by the effects of this theft."

He told Mullane he would be eligible for parole in 18 months.