A SERIAL conwoman, jailed for fleecing men she met on the internet, is back behind bars after admitting a string of fraud charges.

Emma Charlton, formerly known as Emma Golightly, wove a web of deceit in an attempt to fleece her grandmother and fiance out of £150,000.

The 25-year-old, of Meadowfield Gardens, in Walkerville, Newcastle, used stolen cheques in an attempt to book a lavish £73,000 wedding at a country house hotel.

She told staff at Slaley Hall Hotel, Northumberland, she was the editor of Vogue magazine, even carrying a miniature dog to complete the illusion.

She told her fiance, Neil Lupton, she was a successful businesswoman who ran a chain of photographic studios, claiming her father was a judge and she had been married to a Greek soldier.

He believed she was terminally ill with cancer and booked her the service of a carer two days a week.

When he grew suspicious after a series of cheques bounced, she claimed the bank had frozen her account after burglars ransacked her Leeds photographic office.

She even told him she was adopted in Africa when he grew suspicious her age did not match the date of birth on her passport.

Newcastle Crown Court was told Charlton was snared after using stolen cheques to pay for a charity fashion show using models with cancer at the Hilton Hotel, Gateshead, which never took place.

Carl Gumsley, prosecuting, said she had used money she conned from people to pay for foreign holidays and currency, and goods including food, jewellery and bedding, much of which she exchanged for cash at Cash Converters.

Charlton wrote 19 cheques totalling £126,387.90 using her grandmother’s chequebook, and nine cheques using her fiance’s chequebook for £28,402.

She also admitted making an online application for a loan in her fiance’s name to obtain £8,000.

Charlton’s victims suffered losses in the region of £38,000.

Michael Hodson, for Charlton, said she was a deeply troubled woman who suffered from a personality disorder brought on by low self-esteem.

He said: ‘‘She is not motivated by self-interest. She is trying to create a fantasy world in which she feels better about herself.”

Golightly admitted 23 charges of fraud and theft committed between September 2008 and May last year.

Jailing her for three years, Judge Guy Whitburn said: “What you did was to create a false world at other people’s expense. And it was at very considerable expense, both financially, and for Mr Lupton in particular, emotionally.

‘‘It was a cruel thing you did to him and he lost very considerably, not only emotionally, but financially, as a result of this false world you were creating.’’ Charlton was jailed in 2007 for two years for plundering the bank accounts of men she met through lonely hearts ads.

She met her victims, seduced them and then stole their cash, spending the money on exotic holidays, chauffeur-driven cars and expensive hotels and restaurants.