An American man was jailed after faking his death in a bid to avoid paying child support.

39-year-old Jesse Kipf of Somerset, Kentucky, was sentenced to nine years in prison for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft after he attempted to skip out on his outstanding child support obligations.

Carlton Shier, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said in a statement that Kipf accessed Hawaii’s death registry system in January last year. He used login details from a doctor living in another part of the US and created a case for his own death and completed a worksheet for a death certificate in the Aloha State. As a result, Kipf was registered as a deceased person in several government databases.

He also accessed other state registry systems and private networks using credentials stolen from real people and attempted to sell the access on the dark web.

Kipf was arrested in November at that time he admitted his actions were in part to avoid paying child support. The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to charges in April.