OXFORD University is to step up checks of employees' histories after a bogus academic went undetected for three months.

Richard Ray claimed he wanted to write a book on student life amid the dreaming spires.

Magistrates were told Ray, 31, who has a degree in computer sciences, carried out a "breathtakingly simple" scam for three months before he was discovered at the end of January and arrested.

Yesterday Clare Tucker, prosecuting, told city magistrates Ray forged a university membership card after taking a temporary job in the card office in St Giles between August and October last year.

He used it to get a room in Worcester College accommodation, gain access to the Bodleian Library and use computers in Trinity College, where he set up a website.

A University spokesman said: "Our normal employment procedures were followed, including taking up references.

"But in the light of this incident we will be tightening up our procedures and checking references more thoroughly."

Ray admitted obtaining services from Worcester College by deception and making up a false membership card.

Sentence was adjourned for four weeks for reports.

Outside court Ray, who is Asian, said he had been researching for a book about why there were few Asian dons.

Ray, currently unemployed, added: " I wanted to immerse myself in the character and write about it."

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