Mother of all sick hoaxes

A New York school employee scammed an extra week on a tropical paradise holiday - by fooling her bosses into believing her daughter had died.

Joan Barnett had one of her daughters call the school to say her sister had suffered a heart attack in Costa Rica, reports the New York Daily News.

She then had another daughter call the school later that day to say the sister had died and the family were traveling to the country for a funeral.

Mrs Bennet even faxed a forged death certificate of her daughter, Xinia Daley Herman, to Manhattan High School of Hospitality Management as proof of the death.

It meant she was able to spend two-and-a-half weeks in March 2010 - including her school-sanctioned spring break - in the tropical paradise.

But a school official grew suspicious of the death certificate because it contained "slightly different fonts which were not aligned properly", according to a report.

Costa Rican government officials later confirmed the certificate was a fake, noting the document had identification numbers that had been issued to a man in 2005.

When confronted, Mrs Barnett insisted her daughter had died and submitted another death certificate - this time with the month and year changed to March 2010, according to court records.

The plot cost Mrs Barnett her job. She also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor over the forgery in Manhattan Criminal Court.