A cheating dad of six dumped his family to shack up with a female neighbour after stealing benefit cash for baby milk and spending it on booze and fags.
Gary Meikle, 33 – branded “the worst father in Scotland” – committed the fraud after walking out on wife Tracey and his kids.
Meikle pocketed an NHS Healthy Start Card, specifically meant to pay for baby milk and healthy food.
He took it to a petrol station and convenience stores and bagged £500 worth of alcohol and cigarettes – and paid next to nothing in maintenance for his family, according to Tracey.
Meikle, who has moved in with a neighbour and lives 100 yards away from his marital home, appeared before a sheriff in Kilmarnock after Tracey, 43, discovered the Healthy Start account had been plundered.
Police were granted a warrant to search a home in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, where Meikle was living with a new partner.
When they knocked on the door, he told them he had the card in his pocket and they confiscated it. A friend of Tracey’s, who contacted the Record, said Meikle has been lying low and has had virtually no contact with his six children despite living so close.
The friend said: “Tracey was unaware of any major problems in the marriage but Gary moved out in June 2021, when she was four months pregnant with their sixth child.
“He’s abandoned her with the kids then robbed the money for the baby’s milk. It’s disgusting.
“She found out he was basically lying low after that. Tracey thinks he had his own flat for a bit but ended up back with his new partner.”
The friend added: “He hasn’t spent a penny on birthday or Christmas presents, not even a card.
“It’s hard to imagine there is a worse dad in Scotland.”
At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last month, Meikle was ordered to pay Tracey £500 compensation for the fraud. The charge against him stated he showed up at a garage in Kilwinning with the Healthy Start card, which he said was his.
The complaint specifically acknowledged that the card was meant for baby milk. The charge was also aggravated by the abuse of Tracey under the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act.
At an earlier hearing, Meikle tried to say Tracey had given him permission to spend the benefit cash but a sheriff refused to believe him.
It is understood he still hasn’t paid a penny of it back.
Meikle was also given a two-year non-harassment order.
When the Record emailed Meikle to get his side of the story, he got his mother Roseanne to call our reporter.
She said: “He is quite upset and doesn’t want to say anything.”
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