Learning How to Fake It Week In Week Out

Fancy a new career, but you don't have the qualifications?

This is not worth the paper it's written on.

Tonight we go undercover to expose a scam where students are getting

lessons in how to cheat and lie their way to loans and grants.

You can make a certificate for her from Italy or something.

And it's all courtesy of Welsh Government cash.

I'm flabbergasted that potentially tens of thousands,

hundreds of thousands, millions may be going astray.

We put a college principal to the test.

It's a fake certificate because you are a faker, aren't you?

And we confront the man who's looking

You are ripping off the Welsh public, Welsh government,

There are many big attractions in Wales.

And Cardiff draws students from across the world.

Not surprising then that a new, privately owned college has decided

It promises to help hundreds of students change their lives

And it's doing it with the help of Welsh government cash.

It was set up a decade ago in Wembley,

The principal, who is also a lecturer here,

Build your career at the West London Vocational Training College.

Dr Manoj Kumar is proud of what's on offer.

Today there are students studying for Higher National Diplomas,

Algeria, Somalia, some from Bengali, Indian.

He says they carefully select students - if they don't have

We have to take only quality students.

Here, we had only 300 applications 300 applications, we accepted 50.

Now another 250 applications received and 47 admissions.

One of those who went to sign up told us he'd had

He's asked us not to identify him We've called him Sondip.

A lot of leaflets was going round in Cardiff.

One of my friends called me and he said come and join the college.

There's a bit of money and education.

He says a recruiter was offering students lessons in how to cheat

and lie their way to student loans, grants and a qualification.

He was offering ?10,000 student finance, plus the grant.

So it seemed very easy money at the beginning.

And did you ask him about how demanding that course

would be and whether you were really capable of doing it?

At the beginning, he said I don't have to do anything

because all the assignments, all the work is going to be by...

He says this is the agent who made that offer - he's Kazi Shajahan.

He's been promoting the college's courses online.

He said you don't have to worry about it because

unless you earn ?21,000, you don't have to pay it back.

Was there any chance you would earn more than ?21,000?

Until they earn more than ?21,000 a year, students don't have to

But the presumption is that they will at least have completed their

Back on the tour, I wanted to know more

So you want to make sure they are properly qualified and you wouldn't

take anybody who is not qualified, under any circumstances?

Because reputation is everything in this business, isn't it?

Because if you lose reputation, you lose the lot, don't you?

It's a matter of education and service.

Students on an HND level four and five course can apply

And the Welsh Government will pay tuition fees to the college

Earlier this year the private college sector in England was hit

by scandal when a National Audit Office report revealed ?50m might

have been wasted in loan and grants and tuition fees by students who

Many didn't bother turning up for lesson or even registering

for exams, and others dropped out after receiving their cash.

Some were from Wales, attending colleges in London which didn't

We decided to go undercover at the college to investigate Kazi's

dodgy deals promoting its business courses.

Enter Jaspal - he's actually a member of our team.

I'm posing as businessman with extensive contacts

and someone who can potentially supply him with students.

The more students Kazi finds, the more he earns

and the college earns in Welsh government funded tuition fees.

I've never met him before, so I'm not sure how guarded he's

He meets Kazi in an office he was using at the college.

Is there somewhere we can have a chat?

Kazi, a local taxi driver, is busy recruiting.

I supply labour to the construction industry here.

So I am just wondering if we can do business, if we can explore

Kazi's keen - he offers Jaspal ?100 for every student that enrols

But what if new recruits haven't studied before?

Won't they need GCSEs or other qualifications?

If they got qualifications from back home, we accept it.

If not, if they can make any certificate we don't challenge

If got certificate, we are not calling it.

If they got no qualification it's no problem.

What you saying is they can make some qualification you

So we are putting his offer to the test, with the help of Mica,

I'm Italian by birth and though I was raised in Wales.

Undercover I'll be losing my usual accent and putting on the Italian

I'm posing as an uneducated Italian who cleans and looks after kids

We know that to be eligible for student grants or loans I'd have

to have lived in Wales for at least three years,

I speak English, but I don't have school here.

I left to work, so I don't have anything.

What's this prior qualification what she put here?

You can make a certificate for her from Italy or something.

On printer, change name or something.

Back in the room, Kazi tells Mica what to write to explain why she

My aim in future - set up my own business.

The college also runs a Level 3 access course for students

But if she did that, Mica wouldn't be eligible for a loan or grant,

and the college would receive only ?2,500 in tuition fees.

We are thinking to try to put on HND higher level.

She's not qualified for this course, but if she does it,

she will bring in another ?6,000 to the college in tuition fees.

If he say she ok with HND, we can put her on it.

That teacher is the College Principal and lecturer Dr Kumar.

I want to start a small restaurant business.

So I'd like to have some kind of business plan.

OK, give me a scenario, putting in all thoughts how you

Kazi leaves her with Dr Kumar and takes Jaspal for another quiet word.

I can tell you off the record if they got a certificate -

anything from anywhere they can make from anywhere, you know?

We do not check if it is genuine or false or what is that.

We don't check it - our system put it on file.

Mica has already told the Principal and Kazi that she really isn't

qualified to do an HND in business management.

He handed me a piece of used writing paper - someone had already

I just began writing my business ideas - they certainly

I wrote a few paragraphs - all very basic stuff, with a few spelling

Look for building town centre or Cardiff Bay because busier.

More people there and advertising for the waitress,

HND Students should spend 16 hours a week at the college.

According to Sondip, Kazi was offering a special deal.

He said you could come in any time and sign the attendance.

And when the time comes they would sort everything out for me.

You were being offered money for a course you wouldn't have to

attend and you wouldn't have to pay that money back?

Will our undercover journalist get the same routine?

These people, they have to go to work.

If they come ten o'clock, they can go two o'clock.

They just sign attendance then they can go?

So he tells our undercover journalist his

students won't have to attend, but how will they do the coursework?

If they are working who is doing the assignment?

Maybe they charge each assignment, nine or eight in one year.

All guaranteed pass assignment submitted.

However, when I was given my tour of the college,

Dr Kumar was at pains to stress that students have to be bright enough

You are the man who signs it off to make sure the students you are

Sure, and loss of reputation for the college.

Sure, and if they didn't have any education at all, you wouldn't

But that's not what happen to our undercover journalist She is

So she is qualified for HND, but she is studied in the Italy.

Kazi assures them the letter to Italy will not be sent.

Do not worry about it, I've handled it.

He tells them to fake a CV for Mica and he'll sort out the rest.

So Mica's can go ahead and apply for student loans and possibly

And they leave to look for more recruits.

When new colleges are set up they undergo inspections by exam boards.

But we've discovered that a week before we went undercover,

Pearson's went into the college and gave it a clean bill of health.

We have also discovered that the Welsh government allowed

the college access to public money before Pearson's checked

In England, regulators the Quality Assurance

Agency, or QAA, review colleges before courses are designated

I'm meeting its Director of Quality Assurance.

Our role is about making sure students interests

are protected, they are receiving high quality teaching and learning

That's part of a bigger decision about whether

Different arrangements operate in Wales In England as you said,

know they are different, but are they right?

I just said in an ideal world all private colleges in this country,

throughout the UK, would be subject to QAA review in order to protect

interests of students, but that's not the current situation.

But Kazi says he can get around rules and regulations.

So, as instructed, we fake a GCSE certificate to see if it can get

a student on to the course and secure a government funded loan.

Meet Pritpal, our other undercover student.

whether the documents we take are faked.

According to this, I've got GCSEs in half a dozen subjects.

Our undercover agent is taking Pritpal to meet Kazi

You know, you said last time to bring some certificates.

I make two versions. Which is better quality for you?

He takes him to a quiet corner of the college.

I just changed the name, just changed the name.

Thicker and thinner one, this one, got writing on the back.

The college says all its students are genuine,

attend classes regularly, and submit their own coursework which is marked

by qualified tutors and checked with anti-plagiarism software.

selling assignments to Pritpal and the other recruits?

Are they lecturer are they expert or are they...?

They are expert not in college - outside.

If they are all paying for the assignments, maybe the lecturer here

get suspicious because the answers are all the same?

Who will make the assignment. He knows how to make it.

So they won't have to do the coursework

but what if the "students" are working full time?

if they're claiming student loans or grants.

If as long as they don't declare to the government, that's fine.

They can come in and stay one hour and go?

Our college side, I control everything.

I can speak and persuade, no problem.

The principal, he's gonna go crazy maybe?

He knows what's going on or he doesn't know?

Kazi tells our bogus student what to write so he can enrol.

You are choosing this course because you want to set up

If he enrols, the college gets ?6,000, Kazi gets a commission

and our student gets his hands on that all important loan.

All students in Wales get loans and grants through

Student Finance Wales, which is funded by Welsh Government.

It doesn't have the authority to check

if a student's qualifications are genuine.

At present, that's up to individual colleges.

The National Audit Office Report raised concerns

about this months ago and called for change.

But we've discovered, to date, the system remains the same.

So will we get our fake through the system?

Kazi's armed with our home-made GCSE certificate

and he knows Pritpal is lying about his qualifications

He escorts him to a member of college staff who helps him

to fill out the Student Finance Wales on-line application.

Don't make him full-time. They are not allowed.

Before leaving, Kazi asks Pritpal for a favour.

Pritpal is told when to turn up for lessons.

This is when you might be expected to go in.

What I believe is, I go in, register, then I can go off.

From there they put me into the enrolment process

Remember, it's a loan that Kazi says he may never have to repay.

Next day, he receives an email to say it's been approved.

Student Finance Wales has emailed Pritpal to say his application

is being processed, so the faked certificate worked.

It means he's on course to get a loan of more than ?3,000.

And he could get more and even a grant if he fills in paperwork

and the college is set to receive tuition fees of ?6,000.

It is clear no-one within this system checked

So we've exposed a system which allowed us to fake qualifications

and buy coursework, and what's our reward?

Pritpal was only one of up to 300 students

who Kazi wanted us to supply to the college

and they'd all have been chasing student loans and grants.

of the Welsh Assembly's Public Accounts Committee.

I'm pretty flabbergasted that potentially tens of thousands,

hundreds of thousands, millions, may be going astray

from a system which is under pressure.

I think there needs to be a fundamental shift in self assessment

by colleges to one where more robust independent assessment,

where they are following rules properly.

What does that say about Student Finance Wales?

I think it calls into question just how robust

their operations are at picking up these fraudulent activities

Student Finance Wales has begun an investigation into our evidence.

But it says it only releases a loan when a college

or university confirms a student is attending a course.

As a new student, Pritpal should be attending lessons today

but he's doing what Kazi said he could.

I just went in and was asked to sign a sheet of paper.

There was a mixture of students in there, all different age groups,

about 35 of them, aged from about 18 to 50.

The class is on a tea break so he waits 15 minutes before walking out.

No-one tried to stop me and no questions were askede whatsoever.

We have tested the scam as far as we can.

Obviously, we have no intention of taking any money

from Student Finance Wales or, ultimately, the Welsh government,

but what we've done is show the system is open to abuse.

So why isn't more being done to prevent it?

We need swift response from the Welsh Government.

We need the Auditor General for Wales to consider

the implications for the wider further education sector

because if this is going on in one organisation,

it could potentially be going on in others as well.

Clearly checks and balances are not working.

We need to improve the policing arrangement

so taxpayers can know that every penny invested in our

further education sector is pennies on which they getting a return.

When we told Mr Bageja about our evidence, he denied

any knowledge of wrongdoing in the recruitment of students.

He says they are stringently vetting

before enrolment, which includes English and maths tests.

He also said student finance would only be released

Principal and lecturer Dr Kumar was happy to be interviewed.

We'd secretly filmed recruiter Kazi running the scam

Khazi accepted a fake certificate from one student, Pritpal,

and actually watched as your other colleague enrolled him.

There is no student like that here, with us.

That's because he pulled out before the money was paid.

The college says students are not registered for loans with

Student Finance Wales until they'd completed a four week trial period.

That Pritpal was actually offered the loan within a day.

He enrolled on the 4th of November

and, according to Student Finance Wales,

you were due for your first instalment of the tuition fees

There's a lot of wrong information going on here.

So how does he explain offering Mica a place on the HND course?

Why did you allow her on to a level four and five course?

I said, sorry, you are saying you are studied in Italy? O-level?

I cannot admit you this is something wrong information.

I am very sorry, you must do an English course.

What about Kazi's role at the college.

We'd secretly filmed him offering the scam under their roof.

He seemsto have the run of the place.

He was working from a desk in your office.

Because if we found out that was the case, wouldn't that make a lie

of just about everything else you have said.

He just comes with the students and he just sits there.

And he just says, please enrol them, and once he is done he goes.

so we thought we'd play him at his own game.

Kazi has no idea we're on to his scam.

He's been waiting for Jaspal to bring him hundreds of new students

and in a few minutes he's expecting to meet

20 East European recruits at a cafe behind me.

Tim Rodgers from the Week In Week Oout programme.

I wondered could I just have a quick chat with you?

You have been getting students to bring in faked certificates.

We have evidence you're operating in this way.

You don't even ask them to do any work.

So you haven't told anybody they can present a fake document

and that's all right, and turn a blind eye to it?

They provide a certificate and authority is doing that test.

You are ripping off the Welsh public, Welsh government,

If you say anything, I am not agree with that.

Well, thank you very much. It has been very illuminating.

He works as an agent, but we just told him, actually, yesterday.

I said there is something wrong, please do not come.

You terminated his contract, have you?

The college owner, Mr Bageja, said Kazi was never employed

at the college as a director of recruitment.

Kazi said on several occasions you know personally about

what he's doing, and you're involved with it too.

I'm a very dignified, qualified teacher.

We found his picture and details on a website

which was registered by a company he owned.

which claims to be affiliated to Cambridge University.

The site shows photographs of genuine Cambridge academics

but they say they've no links to him or the site whatsoever.

And Cambridge University told us he does not have a PhD from them

and he's never been an associate professor there either.

Cambridge University have never heard of you.

We have spoken to Cambridge University

It's a fake certificate because you are a faker, aren't you?

You provide your certificate, your PhD from Cambridge University?

Well, we will look forward to receiving that.

You have never worked as an associate professor there.

I was associate professor at Trinity College.

It's very surprising then they have never heard of you.

Do you know what, we have checked all these academics

Cambridge University don't know anything about this whatsoever.

We did see his so-called certificate.

It was a fake. And so was his teaching certificate.

He also told us he'd worked as an IT expert for Network Rail.

And though he claims to be a lecturer at Cardiff University,

they couldn't find any record of him either.

Lies and fakery have caught up with the principal,

but Sondit, who genuinely wanted to be a student,

blew the whistle after pulling out because he couldn't lie to himself.

I felt, I'm going to cheat to myself.

If I would do education, I would to a proper.

Not the wrong education like that. and get a certificate for nothing.

What we've revealed raises big questions about the system.

How could a scam involving faked certificates

be running at a college where the principal himself

after so many earlier scandals involving colleges elsewhere?

the Welsh Education Minister Huw Lewis.

He declined our several requests for an interview

he suspended payments to the college last Friday.

So I thought I'd try to talk to him again.

This is a really important issue. Public money is involved.

I have spoken to is communication team and they say they will consider

our request. Today, in the Senedd, questions

were asked about our findings I will be referring this

to Auditor General Wales. It's important to know he takes look

at it as an independent person, Also, I think it is imperative

these allegations are referred to the police

so they can consider whether there is potential action

they need to follow up. The college's owner

has told us today Manoj Kumar has been removed

from his post. The repercussions from this affair

might not end there. If there are changes in the system

as a result of what happened here, surely they will ensure that money

goes to those genuine students who are working hard

to build a future.