A 30-YEAR-old Morecambe woman who spun a web of lies to obtain £3,000 by deception has been jailed for 18 months.

Preston Crown Court heard that Mandy Dunbar, of Ennerdale Avenue, told a series of lies - including one that she was going to die from leukaemia - to get money from another woman.

She also made her victim believe a prof-essor was in love with her, and sent cards to the woman purporting to be from him.

Nicholas Kennedy, prose-cuting, said the victim was in her late 50s and had been 'remarkably gullible and nave'. And he described the facts of the case as 'somewhat bizarre'.

The woman had known Dunbar for several years and in July 2001, she received numerous calls from people who said they were either nurses or doctors and that Dunbar should have good meals and calcium.

Dunbar even told her whom to contact when she died, but it was 'a complete and utter fiction', Mr Kennedy said.

During a walk on the promenade, Dunbar had pointed out a well-dressed man as a professor and told the woman he was roman-tically interested in her.

The woman was flattered and entered into prolific cor-respondence with the professor. Meetings were set up, but were always postponed.

Dunbar claimed he had had a heart attack and was in hospital.

She also said the professor was short of money and the woman handed over around £3,000 over a period of time for him, the court heard.

Dunbar pleaded guilty to the charge, accepting she had lied about having cancer and inventing the love affair.

In a statement, the victim described the case as a living nightmare that had left her devastated, hor-rified and distressed, and she had had to take out a loan for what she had paid out.

Simon Mintz, mitigating, said Dunbar was a lonely woman with a craving for love and attention following her mother's death.

"Her motive was to win the continuous attention of an adult upon the death of her mum," said Mr Mintz.

Dunbar had lied like a child and when interviewed, she persisted and bluffed it out even when told the professor had denied knowing her.

He added that she was an 'immature and emotionally flawed young woman'.

Judge Brian Duck-worth told Dunbar: "This was a cruel deceitful unthinking but very damaging fraud that you have perpetrated on this lady."