A Huddersfield police officer who was convicted of submitting falsified wage slips to cut child maintenance payments today lost a Court of Appeal bid to clear his name.
Jonathan Denyer-Stenson, 41, of Victoria Street, Marsden, used the falsified documents in a bid to reduce Child Support Agency payments to his ex-wife.
In 2008, he admitted three counts of furnishing false information and was given a 12-month suspended sentence with 200 hours’ unpaid community work.
Today, more than six years later, his case reached the Court of Appeal, where he sought to withdraw his guilty pleas and overturn the convictions.
Denyer-Stenson, who was based at Lawcroft House station, in Bradford, at the time of the offence, claimed what he had done did not constitute offences under the 1968 Theft Act.
But his case was kicked out of court after appeal judge, Mr Justice Popplewell, said the complaints were based on a “fundamental misunderstanding of the law”.
The court heard Denyer-Stenson had caused four pay slips and a P60 end-of-year tax document, all false, to be submitted to the CSA.
His plan was to reduce the maintenance payments which he had to make to his ex-wife in respect of their daughter.
Rejecting his arguments today, Mr Justice Popplewell, sitting with Lord Justice Fulford and Judge Guy Boney QC, said the appeal was also far too late.
He had missed the deadline by about five-and-a-half years, the judge said, meaning that the original case papers had long ago been destroyed.
“There is no justification for an extension of time,” he continued. “No good reason has been given for such a lengthy delay.”
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