A 17-YEAR-OLD girl conned her way on to four Army bases and ordered troops about in an astonishing security lapse. The blonde Forces fantasist hoodwinked hardened soldiers over ten days which saw her:
WAKE a platoon of 30 rookie Paras at 3am and put them through drill exercises;
WANDER close to lethal and sensitive equipment such as £30million Apache helicopter gunships and Challenger battle tanks;
COMMANDEER military vehicles and drivers to ferry her around;
BLAG a room to stay overnight at one base.
The extraordinary series of pranks exposed gaping flaws in military security and left top brass furious — in the very week that Prince William joins the Army.
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Target 2 ... she relaxed in mess
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The girl began her brazen charade last November at Helles Barracks — the Parachute Regiment’s depot at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, North Yorks.
She had recently been turned down for entrance to the Army — but, claiming to be a soldier, she pulled an instructor in town and persuaded him to take her back.
After spending the night with the NCO, she asked to borrow his uniform by claiming she needed it for a Remembrance Day parade and had forgotten her own.
But instead, she went to the new recruits’ accommodation at 3am and woke a whole platoon by barking a series of stern orders.
She 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 blagged entry into nearby Alanbrooke Barracks in Topcliffe and spent the day relaxing in the officers’ mess.
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Target 3 ... got a room for night
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She then commandeered a driver to take her to Cambrai Barracks in Catterick — home to 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 rumbled by a suspicious sentry.
Special Branch detectives were called in to investigate the school leaver as a terrorism threat.
They deemed her harmless and released her without charge.
But seven days later, she grabbed a train to Hampshire where she called a driver to pick her up at the station and take her to the Army Air Corps HQ in Middle Wallop.
There she wandered around the home of the latest £30million Apache helicopter gunships — the Army’s costliest piece of kit.
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Target 4 ... inspected Apaches
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But she was caught again and top brass insisted on a prosecution.
She appeared before Basingstoke Youth Court where she got an 18-month supervision order.
An MoD source told The Sun: “What this young lady managed to do was quite extraordinary.
“For a teenager to penetrate military security as deeply as she did on four occasions is appalling.
“What on earth could an al-Qaeda terrorist have achieved? One shudders to think.
“She made a mockery of some of Britain’s finest fighting outfits.
“Top brass are fuming. Heads will have to roll.”
