A MOTHER has been jailed for four years today after she concocted a string of stories about being kidnapped, raped and burgled.

James Hore

A MOTHER has been jailed for four years today after she concocted a string of stories about being kidnapped, raped and burgled.

Michaela Britton claimed she had been the victim of a series of crimes during a six-month period starting in February 2006 and her allegations were so serious she put innocent people at risk of being jailed.

But she was in fact a fantasist whose web of lies led to thousands of wasted hours for the police.

The 40-year-old had denied one charge of perverting the course of justice but a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court returned a unanimous guilty verdict following a three-week trial earlier this month.

A series of medical and psychiatric reports were prepared on the mother-of-one from Waterhouse Lane, Chelmsford before today's sentencing.

Judge David Turner QC, who has said it has been “one of the strangest” cases he had ever dealt, jailed Britton for four years.