Five years for cash con therapist

A counsellor who brainwashed her client into giving her more than £200,000 has been jailed for five years.

Mary McCullagh, 59, who was living in Fordingbridge, Hants, told Nicole Anderson she would return the cash once she inherited a fictitious £9m estate.

Miss Anderson, an alcoholic, was also told by McCullagh to keep drinking or she risked dying from a fit.

During the trial, Miss Anderson told the jury the therapist had encouraged her to drink as much as she wanted, saying she could have a fatal fit if she stopped.

She told the court: "It was fantastic news. Any alcoholic wants to be told that they can drink."