dads -- triggered by the opening of an office to tackle a staggering $8 million in arrears.

More than half a dozen fathers were hauled into Magistrates' Court and warned they would go directly to jail if they did not pay up.

Together they owed more than $50,000 in court-ordered child-support payments.

Among them was local cricket star Clevie Wade.

He owes nearly $20,000 to three children he fathered with two women -- on top of having to support his wife and fourth child.

Wade, who will play in a match against a touring West Indies team later this month, was told he would go to jail if he did not make a $200 payment by June 30, or if his payments fell into default again.

And in a clear indication that authorities would no longer put up with parents who refuse to take responsibility for their children, the court dealt with a man who was arrested at the Airport about to depart on his honeymoon.

The newlywed was not allowed to leave the Island until his frantic bride managed to raise enough money to cover $2,000 in arrears.

Even Mr. Sylvan Butterfield's excuse that he suffered from epileptic fits did not soften magistrate the Wor. Cheryl-Ann Mapp's stance.

She could "not accept'' that for the last 20 years he had been unable to afford six dollars a week to clear nearly $14,000 in arrears.

Mrs. Mapp suggested he "start selling property or find a job packing groceries or cutting grass if necessary''.

Although his two children were now in their 30s, he still had to pay his debt, she said, upping his payment to $25 a week to cover the arrears and giving him until June 22 to make the first payment.

"If you fail to make the payments, you will go straight to jail,'' she told Butterfield.

Alan Hill's weekly payment was upped from $50 to $100 to pay off nearly $4,000 in arrears. If he fell 14 days in default, a committal warrant would go out, Mrs. Mapp warned.

Kenneth Trott, who owed $6,630 to his child, was ordered to start paying $50 a week by the end of June.

Noting Trott's son was now in his 20s, Mrs. Mapp told him: "You cannot just ignore your obligations. There were some things he needed while he was growing up that he did not have because you weren't making your contribution.'' Oral Matthews, $1,600 in arrears, argued he would be unable to pay his $900 rent if forced to pay $60 a week in child support.

Mrs. Mapp suggested he consider renting a cheaper place or getting a second job.

"Your child must come first,'' she said, upping his payment to $100 to help pay his debt.

Wali Muhammad's weekly payment was also upped to clear $6,000 in arrears while continuing to support his child.

Court administrator Mr. Tracey Kelly said he expected arrests to continue throughout the month.

"We'll just keep going until we get them all,'' he said.

The office was concentrating its efforts on locating 200 delinquent parents believed to be the worst offenders.

Arrest warrants already existed for them, he pointed out.

The reason they had not landed in court before was that officers had not had the time and means to track them down.

But with the opening in May of the four-member Office of Family and Child Support, equipped with an advanced computer-tracking system, an all-out effort had begun to obtain current addresses and places of employment for an estimated 2,000 delinquent dads.

Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness had warned at the office's official opening last month that "mass arrests'' could occur.

He urged delinquent dads to contact staff to try and work out a payment plan "to avoid the embarrassment of arrest''.

The creation of the office had been recommended by a Government task force on family support set up last April.

"Its establishment reinforces Government's philosophy that in Bermuda children come first,'' Mr. Edness commented.

It was not fair for taxpayers who support their own families to shoulder the burden of maintaining children of delinquent parents through social assistance programmes.