Jacqueline Crane ( pictured outside court ) claimed to be a professor of psychology and said she was qualified to train people to become counsellors . A fake psychologist was caught running a bogus counselling course after setting her students a series of increasingly bizarre tasks including climbing a tree and riding a bike in the rain . Jacqueline Crane , 52 , of of St Austell , Cornwall , pretended to be a professor of psychology and claimed she was qualified to train people to become counsellors . She set her students bizarre tasks including scaling trees , cycling in bad weather and taking candlelit baths and would then ask for feedback on how the wacky practices made the students feel , a court was told . But her students - who spent thousands of pounds on her courses - became suspicious because of her increasingly strange ideas and bad spelling . The finally caught her out when a group of her students discovered she had used old exam papers to test them . Crane then invented a fake family and forged doctor notes claiming she was too ill to attend court . Despite her best efforts she was jailed for 18 months at Truro Crown Court after pleading guilty to fraud by making a false representation , perverting the course of justice and benefit fraud . The court heard Crane set up the course in May 2012 and ran it for 18 months , pretending to be a doctor of psychology to con her seven long-term and numerous other short term students out of nearly £8,000 . Speaking after the hearing two of her former students have spoken of the damage caused after being hooked by Crane 's lies . They said they were reeled in by fake photos of Crane in a university cap on her graduation day . Mother-of-five Jessica Brewster , 35 , was one of those sucked in to Crane 's fantasy world and spent hundreds of wasted hours trying to improve her future . She said : ' I was a taxi driver for Jacqui and she told me she was going to set up a counselling course , which was something I had always wanted to do . Jessica Brewster ( pictured ) who was one of the students to be conned by fraudster Jacqueline Crane . 'But from the start there were hints that things were n't what they seemed . 'One of the girls kept pointing out that there were spelling mistakes on these slides and asking where she had got them from . Jacqui did n't like that . ' Another of the victims , known only as Jane , said : 'She would set us these exercises . One of them was to ride around on a bike in the rain , which I did on Jess ' patio . 'One was to have a candlelit bath . Another was to climb a tree . She asked us to think about how it made us feel . ' Ms Brewster said they went on a group outing in Truro where they were set another bizarre task . She said : 'She asked us to go up to random people and start conversations with them . 'It sounds silly but I feel humiliated thinking about it now . ' An incident involving fake exam papers finally revealed the truth . The group had got together to go over some past papers and then realised that Crane had just given them one for real . Jane said : 'That 's when it all hit home . ' Crane has now been jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to fraud at Truro Crown Court ( pictured ) Crane was jailed for 12 months for the fraud against her students and three months each for perverting the course of justice and benefits fraud . They will run consecutively . Judge Simon Carr said : 'The money they had saved up to improve their education has been completely wasted . ' Jeremy Leaning , defending , said Crane had admitted being a fantasist since childhood and that she accepted responsibility for the offending . Following the sentencing Jessica said : 'For what she has done , it 's not long enough . '
Jacqueline Crane , 52 , pretended to be a professor of psychology . She claimed she was accredited to train people to become counsellors . But she was caught after setting her students increasingly bizarre tasks . 'Truro Crown Court ' included cycling in the rain and taking candlelit baths . Fantasist has now been jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to fraud .