Cheating students face prison
Three mainland university students tried sitting the Test of English as a Foreign Language exam (Toefl) in place of others. In Tsuen Wan court on Monday, they were sentenced to 10 months in prison.
The trio - Cai Peipei 24, Diao Sujin 23 and Chen Ziqing, 23 - were found guilty of using fake passports.
They said they had been offered 2,000 yuan (HK$2,450) by other mainland students to come to Hong Kong and take the exam in their names. All three said they were in desperate need of money and so they had agreed to the scheme.
Cai, who is from Zhejiang , said his parents were retired farmers and he needed to help them financially.
Diao, who is also from Zhejiang, said his father had cancer and his mother was also sick.
Diao said he was under great financial pressure, which led him to agree to the scam.
All three students said they were sorry for their actions.
The three mainlanders were caught on Saturday at the Lai King Assessment Centre in Kwai Chung.
A supervisor grew suspicious as the passports the mainland students presented at the exam did not have Hong Kong Immigration Department stamps. The students then admitted to using other people's passports.
