A woman has been jailed for conning more than £250,000 out of her parents by convincing them she was a successful student at Oxford University and needed money for research projects and travel.

Instead Nicola Boardman, 34, spent the cash on drugs, holidays and a secret wedding that her parents, Frank and Marilyn, were not invited to.

Boardman, who was sentenced to 40 months in prison, told her parents that she would make millions if she completed a PhD in social sciences, but needed cash upfront to fund her research, including what turned out to be fictional trips to Greece and Mongolia.

Truro crown court was told that Boardman became addicted to heroin as a teenager but appeared to have kicked her habit and graduated from a Cornish college with a first-class social sciences degree.

She told her parents that she wanted to study for a PhD and her 60-year-old father drove her to both Oxford and Cambridge under the belief that she was having interviews.

Boardman later told her father, who worked for trading standards, that she had won scholarships to both universities and chose Oxford. Between 2011 and 2015 her father gave her more than £250,000, believing she needed the cash for research abroad, rent and travelling expenses.

Prosecuting, Philip Lee, told the court: “It transpired that everything she told them about Oxford and Cambridge was completely fabricated. There were no such interviews and no such scholarships.”

Boardman reassured her parents that her success as an academic would pay off, and her father had retired early under the premise that earnings from her work published in scientific journals would help him financially.

Lee added: “Boardman completed a detailed schedule of expenses and her parents decided to sell their home after she presented fake draft sales contracts for her work worth £3m.”

She even lied to her parents that she had had a stillborn child and went as far as to invite them to a “sham” ceremony where the ashes were scattered. In fact she had terminated the pregnancy. The money her parents gave her was spent on holidays, drugs and a £10,000 marriage in London to a man her parents hated.

When she was finally rumbled, Boardman told police that her drug problem had “spiralled out of control” again and “words could not express” how sorry she was. She pleaded guilty to one count of fraud.

A victim impact statement from her father, Frank, read out in court, said: “I personally have been deprived of my retirement that I have worked hard for, for the last 40 years.”

Mr Justice James Dingemans told her: “You became addicted to heroin as a teenager and after the involvement of police and social services you underwent drugs rehabilitation and you attended an access to further education course.

“Then in September 2008 you started on a social sciences degree which you graduated from in 2011 with a first-class honours. From 2011 you started to deceive your parents. Your parents paid some £250,000 for your rental expenses, your cash, your holidays.

“You continued the deceit by pretending that you had been paid for the publication of an article in March 2011 and you persuaded them to pay for the private education of your daughter. You pretended to have 12 pieces of academic research and you forged emails. Your parents have been completely deceived.”

The judge added: “This is another evidence-based example of the destruction caused to society by the use of drugs.”