Middle aged Jim McAuley was also forced to make a grovelling apology after he bragged on a social networking website that he had been a member of the Parachute Regiment and the SAS and had killed more than 100 people.

Mr McAuley, an adult instructor in the Lancashire Army Cadet Force, which has its headquarters at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, claimed that he had been a paratrooper at the battle of Goose Green in the Falklands War and that he was the second SAS man on the balcony of the London Iranian Embassy siege in 1980.

In fact married Mr McAuley, who lives in Chorley and was based in the town as an instructor, used to serve in the Army Catering Corps.

His remarkable web of lies finally caught up with him in an elaborate "sting" by furious serving soldiers who sent him messages posing as a woman called Jenny Gilbert.

And he was eventually forced into an embarrassing climbdown after troops threatened to expose him to the media.

An Army spokesman confirmed an instructor in the cadets had resigned over "falsehoods" posted on a "networking website".

Mr McAuley's Facebook profile now appears to have been removed from the site, but the entire embarrassing affair, including a full transcript of his online conversation with the fictional woman invented by troops, has been available on a website for serving soldiers.

In one exchange he tells the woman he will send her pictures of him in action in Afghanistan, adding: "I did a spell with the boys in black but really can't say too much."

He also claims to have lost friends in Afghanistan before the conversation turns to the woman visiting McAuley.

McAuley only realised he had been rumbled when the soldier behind the sting, who has never been identified, sent him a message demanding an apology.

McAuley then did apologise for his conduct, saying: "I am so sorry for offending the good men of 2 Para and I acknowledge the sacrifice they made.

"I have never been in the Gulf War, I have never been in Sierra Leone, I have never been a member of the special force and I have never taken part in any undercover operation.

"I was a member of the Army Catering Corps attached to 15 Para."

A spokesman for the Army said: "I can confirm that an adult instructor recently resigned from Lancashire Army Cadet Force in connection with a series of falsehoods stated on a networking website."

When the Lancashire Evening Post called at Mr McAuley's home in Astley Village, Chorley, he refused to speak.

Mr McAuley has been the Poppy Appeal organiser for the Royal British Legion in Chorley for years.

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