IT is a plot worthy of one of the shows that Alison Reynolds claimed to be producing.

A humble art board worker dons disguises and creates a string of false identities to con the Government out of £120,000.

Reynolds dreamed up fake theatrical companies and even wrote a play to help her fraud.

It was about a woman who uses a false identity to become a Hollywood producer.

Now Reynolds, of Seafield Road, Redbridge, Southampton, is behind bars after pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and forgery.

Winchester Crown Court heard that the 42- year-old falsely claimed VAT credits in the name of bogus theatre companies Myths and Mirrors, Dreamweavers and Plan B.

She also used a variety of aliases and posed as several different people when signing the paperwork.

Using wigs and make up, she created numerous personas for herself working across Britain including Rebecca Perry, Alison Kennedy and Jessica Maynard.

She managed to claim at least £119,000 before being caught, the court heard.

Along with four counts of VAT fraud, she also admitted having a false driving licence and falsifying letters that looked like they were meant to come from solicitors and HM Revenue and Customs officers.

Prosecutors accepted her pleas and chose not to push for a trial on 12 other similar charges.

Reynolds will be sentenced before the end of the month at Southampton Crown Court. She was remanded in custody and showed no emotion as she was led from the dock.

It is thought that Reynolds has taken on 11 different aliases in the past ten years.

She was Jessica Maynard when she worked for the Southern Arts Board in Winchester 2001 as a theatre officer administering grants.

In 2003 she moved to Burton-Upon-Trent in Staffordshire where she pretended to be identical twins with the names of the writer TS Eliot’s daughters, Claire and Chess.

She set up The Journeyman Theatre Company and convinced bosses at the Brewhouse Arts Centre to let her rehearse there free of charge for a play about a woman who uses a false identity to become a Hollywood producer. She also persuaded the centre to let her run courses.

But the ruse was rumbled after people noticed that the twin sisters were never seen together.

Staffordshire police investigated but did not find enough evidence for charges to be laid.

Reynolds later surfaced in Sheffield in 2004 in the guise of Rebecca Perry, this time promoting a UK tour of Picture Perfect by her new enterprise, Dreamweavers Theatre Company.

In 2005, her next known role was played out in Bristol as Alison Kennedy with her new theatre company called Plan B.

This time she was peddling a new play called Holding out for a Hero.

Actors who worked on her plays claim they were never paid.

Additional reporting by Warwick Payne