Photo: © 2010 AP via AAP/Josh Reynolds

The Ivy League university claims Adam Wheeler fabricated a perfect academic record to get accepted into their prestigious institution.

Harvard claims Wheeler spent two years attending classes undetected, at a cost to them of $50,000.

Wheeler was only caught out when he got a little too confident and applied for a transfer to Yale, who picked up on his dodgy records.

One of Wheeler's former high school classmates says he was always "the prankster and jokester. He goofed around”.

"He would throw ketchup packets on the ground and it would, like, gush everywhere," Michelle Shockley told the Boston Herald.

The 23-year-old Delaware man has pleaded not guilty to the 20 charges – which include larceny and identity fraud – he faces.