MILITARY chiefs were last night awaiting a report into how a teenage girl conned her way into three North-East Army barracks during an astonishing ten-day prank.

The 17-year-old girl woke 30 young Paratrooper recruits at 3am and put them through drill exercises.

Army investigators are also looking into claims that she commandeered vehicles, helped herself to free accommodation and roamed unchallenged near multi-million pound military hardware.

It has emerged the girl, who was refused admission into the Army, began the stunt at Helles Barracks, at the Infantry Training Centre, Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, in November last year.

The teenager met an instructor in the town after claiming she was a soldier and went back to the barracks with him.

The girl asked to borrow the NCO's uniform, saying she needed it for a Remembrance Day parade as she had forgotten her own.

She then went to the new recruits' accommodation at 3am and woke a platoon by barking orders at them.

The teenager claimed to be a Royal Artillery lance bombardier, but had no ID card and regularly gave out the same fake service number.

The next day she conned her way into Alanbrooke Barracks, in Topcliffe, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, and spent the day relaxing in the officers' mess.

She then commandeered a driver to take her to back to Catterick, where she gained entry to Cambrai Barracks, home of the Queens Royal Lancers.

She told the guard commander she was just passing through and asked to be put up for the night, before wandering around the base unescorted.

The girl was finally caught and Special Branch detectives were called in to investigate if she was a terrorist threat.

But they decided she was harmless and she was released without charge.

Seven days later, she took a train to Hampshire where she called a military driver to pick her up at the station and take her to the Army Air Corps HQ in Middle Wallop.

She then wandered around the base, which is home to the £30m Apache helicopter gunships.

She was finally caught and given an 18-month supervision order at Basingstoke Youth Court.

An Army spokesman said yesterday they were awaiting the findings of a military police investigation into the incidents.