A mainland Chinese student has been sentenced to 240 days in prison for using fake certificates from a US Ivy League university to get into a top Hong Kong tertiary institution.
The student, who had possessed another forged certificate showing her graduating with distinction from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), was slammed by a magistrate for her consistent dishonesty.
Li Sixuan, 28, was jailed on Thursday for using a false certificate from Columbia University to apply for the Master of Arts in applied linguistics programme at HKU in 2022.
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She earlier pleaded guilty to obtaining services by deception and possessing a false instrument.
HKU flagged Li’s questionable qualification records after it uncovered in March last year a number of students using fabricated documents allegedly produced by mainland education consultancies.
Li admitted that she paid 380,000 yuan (US$52,000) to hire an agent to arrange an online course provided by Columbia University. She received a “graduation” certificate after attending it for a few days.
After HKU reported her to police, officers discovered in Li’s possession a forged HKU certificate printed with the word “distinction”, even though she had only received a “pass” in her final results, according to university records.
Acting Principal Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong said the defendant did not pull back even after she had already cheated her way into HKU.
“The defendant was consistently dishonest and committed the criminal offences,” he said.
“She did not stop [doing so] after getting into HKU, she even possessed a fake certificate claiming outstanding academic performance.”
Senior counsel Martin Hui Siu-ting asked the court to consider that Li did not intend to use the fake document for any illegal purposes, adding that she had been greatly “distressed” by the case and had learned her lesson.
Li hired Hui, a former deputy director of public prosecutions with the Department of Justice, after firing her first lawyer in earlier proceedings.
Hui reached a plea bargain for his client with the prosecution, who withdrew a count of making a false statement to obtain an entry permit, which Li was originally charged with.
According to the summary of facts, the defendant claimed she was a linguistics graduate from Columbia University and submitted a false certificate to both the HKU administration and the Immigration Department. She was admitted and granted a student visa.
In an internal HKU investigation last year, Columbia University confirmed via email that Li had never graduated from the institution in New York. HKU reported Li to police.
Later, she was stopped by immigration officers at a checkpoint while attempting to leave the city for the mainland, and told them that she was a graduate of Wuhan College at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.
Her defence counsel earlier told the court she was very “determined” to study at HKU.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Student pleads guilty to using fake US degree to get into University of Hong Kong
- Woman charged with using fake papers to get into HKU hires new senior counsel
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