A woman who faked qualifications in order to work as a teacher may have over-marked GCSE coursework at a school, leading to many pupils potentially having their marks later downgraded, a court heard.

Julia Rawlinson, 44, forged degree, doctorate and teaching certificates, saying they were from universities in Scotland and South Africa, to get a job as an examiner with the Edexcel exam board in 2007 and last year as a biology teacher at Westland School in Torquay.

Staff at the school became suspicious about her qualifications after doing security checks and called the police.

She admitted two charges of fraud and three of making a false instrument, asking for three similar cases to be taken into consideration at South Devon Magistrates’ Court on January 26.

Prosecutor Howard Phillips told her sentencing hearing at Exeter Crown Court yesterday that her over-marking had potentially “adversely affected the life chances of many young people” at the school.

“She was marking coursework. It appears she was over-marking and the children could be marked down,” he said.

“As a consequence the grades of children are likely to be affected. They went into their exams thinking they had good results banked. They went forward believing they had more in their coursework than was the case and expecting to do better than they did.”

Documents she forged included a masters degree in science psychology and a doctorate of science psychology from the Glasgow Caledonian University and a BSc in biochemistry from South Africa.

Rawlinson, of the Crescent, Brixham, South Devon, sat in the dock as the court heard there was disagreement over her mental state.

The court heard she told a psychiatrist she heard “voices” and suffered “hallucinations”. But Mr Phillips said she was “thoroughly and utterly dishonest”.

“[The prosecution] will say one of the issues is how genuine this (mental illness) is,” he said.

“We say there is very grave suspicion that it is not genuine. I would go so far as to say that this is a calculated dishonesty over a prolonged period of time.”

Jolyon Tuck, defending, said there were “sincere” concerns about her mental health. He said she had not marked the coursework, adding: “The teacher at the school doesn’t mark the coursework. It gets passed to an external marker.”

Judge Phillip Wassall adjourned the sentencing to allow new medical reports to be prepared. He said the issue of whether Rawlinson marked the coursework at the school “needs to be clarified”.

No mention was made in court of any impact Rawlinson’s employment may have had on exam results marked by Edexcel.

She was released on bail ahead of a hearing on a date yet to be set.

In a statement, Colin Kirkman, headteacher at Westlands, said Rawlinson’s employment by the school was terminated in early October last year, little more than a month after she was taken on.

He said staff had begun to doubt the authenticity of Rawlinson’s qualifications, prompting investigation which suggested they were fake. Mr Kirkham said school staff were praised by Torbay children services department for the thoroughness of the checks made.