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'Tutor' Who Took Online Tests for 124 Students Jailed for Three Years (bbc.com) 72

Posted by EditorDavid from the cheaters-never-prosper dept.
A private tutor who charged money to take dozens of exams for students and submit coursework for them "has been jailed for three years," reports the BBC, "after his scam earned him £300,000." Shahid Adnan completed assignments and online tests for more than 120 students at Liverpool John Moore's University, the Crown Prosecution Service said. The 43-year-old, of Lysander Close, Liverpool, was caught in February 2023 after a student handed in a USB drive containing suspicious coursework to Dr Tom Berry of the university's school of computer science and mathematics. Berry's checks revealed the drive was used by Adnan with documents linked to a company he set up called Study Sharp Ltd.

Excel spreadsheets containing details of other students, their study modules, coursework due dates, and their personal login credentials were also found. Further checks confirmed suspicions that Adnan was accessing the university's network to submit fraudulent work and sit examinations on behalf of students... [I]nvestigations led police to believe Adnan may have been doing work for 124 students at universities all over the world.
The BBC also interviewed detective sergeant Adam Dagnall from Merseyside Police's cybercrime unit, who said Adnan was living a lavish lifestyle "well beyond" his stated occupations as a private tutor and Amazon delivery driver. His bank accounts held more than £2m ($2,645,100 USD).

'Tutor' Who Took Online Tests for 124 Students Jailed for Three Years More | Reply

'Tutor' Who Took Online Tests for 124 Students Jailed for Three Years

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  • Does this mean Sam Altman's going to prison? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 ) on Monday June 22, 2026 @03:51AM (#66203636)
    I'll say the obvious: because we all know that ChatGPT is used constantly for cheating. I'm no fan of this paid cheater, but 3 years of prison for that is stupid. Tax evasion? Sure. Scam? Fuck no. Sounds like the university be bad at Englishing.

    • Re:Does this mean Sam Altman's going to prison? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gijoel ( 628142 ) on Monday June 22, 2026 @04:15AM (#66203650)
      Not really, cheating on exams can tarnish academic integrity and is a menace to society at large. Do you want to have heart surgery performed by someone who didn't know their shit, and cheated on their exams? Do you want to drive over a bridge design by a guy who doesn't understand structural analysis, or be represented by someone who faked their way through law school?

      Besides which academic reputation is worth a lot to university and colleges, and they know it. If they didn't stomp on this now their reputation will turn to shit, and no one will want to enroll there. That can have a big impact on enrollment numbers and by extension their bottom line.

      Lastly, why the fuck should someone too lazy to do the work do as well as or better than someone who busted their balls studying for those subjects?

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by blue trane ( 110704 )

        Have you watched the TV series "The Audacity" wherein the Silicon Valley founder protagonist tells his daughter about getting into Stanford, "Cheaters don't lose and losers don't cheat"?

        • Have you watched the TV series "The Audacity" wherein the Silicon Valley founder protagonist tells his daughter about getting into Stanford, "Cheaters don't lose and losers don't cheat"?

          Was that before or after the after-school special starring Mossimo Giannulli telling the story of how he got ass-raped in prison for the crime of lying on college entrance exams and paying for a rowing scholarship?

          Maybe we should ask the felon wife actress who doesn’t act anymore about stories that end appropriately.

          • Like with drugs, how many get away with it because they have the right connections?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by haruchai ( 17472 )

              Like with drugs, how many get away with it because they have the right connections?

              ask the man who said "i run the country and the world".
              don't expect an honest answer

            • Like with drugs, how many get away with it because they have the right connections?

              And do you think that the fact that some people get away with it makes it right? I wonder what their clients would say when they found out how incompetent they were.

      • Why is a person at university? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Bruce66423 ( 1678196 ) on Monday June 22, 2026 @05:19AM (#66203686)

        The ideal answer is that the person is really interested in the subject they are studying and want to know a lot more.

        The honest answer is that society forces them to go to university as the next step towards a high paying job. The fact that it's also a chance to PARTY is probably also significant!

        For the person whose only motivation is the latter, then the logic of cheating is overwhelming; they don't really believe that they need the stuff they are being taught, so why bother to play nicely?

        The AI challenge, on top of the pandemic's revelation that an awful lot can be done on line, is raising all these hard questions which nobody wants to face. However to some extent it is merely clarifying the questions which were already being raised about the degree to which a university education has become a weapon in the arms race of getting the first job. Once you start to see the university industry as arms salesmen in a war, it's a lot easier to disregard their self serving claims to be making a meaningful contribution to our culture. Of course SOME are doing things of value - especially in STEM - but overall?

        Perhaps the answer is for major companies to announce that they are going to recruit high school graduates with good SATs results for in house apprenticeships that will lead to management. Unfortunately most seem to be continuing to use a degree as the first jump for candidates to get over...

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Shisha ( 145964 )

          True.

          But this one student needed to know the stuff he was studying. From the article: "it came after a computer forensics student submitted coursework on a USB pen drive and the lecturer spotted some other folders on it."

          I mean you're studying computer forensics but you don't know enough to wipe the drive clean (and also metadata in various formats like PDFs and Word that often reveal rather a lot about the history of a document...). You should spend less time partying and more time paying attention.

          Anyway,

          • I guess it was even more simple and primitive: the same drive was used by several cheaters, handed to them by the guy providing the data. And the professor simply realized: he had seen this and that before or the files were even named Student_surname_student_given_name.pdf or student_id.pdf, and there were several of them.

        • Indeed. (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 )

          Coursework should make zero difference in a student's grade. It is there for practice and for the student to get feedback from the teacher.

          A test like the SAT test should BE the degree. It is an objective test of competence, and that is what we should be using to judge candidates. The grades that schools give out are highly subjective judgments that include a lot of bias (depending on the teacher) and so aren't reliable.

          • Tests are not objective.

            People for passing tests excel on them, and fail in the job.
            Normal people are bad in tests, and excel in the job.

            Most people with an A grade, are good in making A grades, and that is it. Unfortunately plenty of school systems are set up to produce A graders, who know nothing.

      • [...] Do you want to have heart surgery performed by someone who didn't know their shit, and cheated on their exams? Do you want to drive over a bridge design by a guy who doesn't understand structural analysis, or be represented by someone who faked their way through law school? [...]

        Indeed. It is a well known 'secret' that other student(s) took Trumps' finals in his place, paid for by his father. The world would be a much better place if this particular scam hadn't happened. Here on finals they check your identity papers (real ones, not an easily fakeable driver's license).

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by haruchai ( 17472 )

        "Do you want to have heart surgery performed by someone who didn't know their shit, and cheated on their exams?"

        if you live where someone could become a board-certified surgeon by having someone take their exams, you're in a shithole country

      • Not really, cheating on exams can tarnish academic integrity and is a menace to society at large. Do you want to have heart surgery performed by someone who didn't know their shit, and cheated on their exams? Do you want to drive over a bridge design by a guy who doesn't understand structural analysis, or be represented by someone who faked their way through law school?

        Besides which academic reputation is worth a lot to university and colleges, and they know it. If they didn't stomp on this now their reputation will turn to shit, and no one will want to enroll there. That can have a big impact on enrollment numbers and by extension their bottom line.

        Let me first state that I *strongly* agree with the points above when applied with *broad strokes*. Cheating across the board is a danger.

        Yet in the constant effort to show that most things aren't black and white, but often have shades in between... lets be more targeted and nuanced.

        I can't be the only one who took "garbage" courses that I still think decades later the University was stupid to require...

        TLDR: The academic process isn't quite an ala carte menu... You are often forced to take cou

    • I'll say the obvious: because we all know that ChatGPT is used constantly for cheating. I'm no fan of this paid cheater, but 3 years of prison for that is stupid. Tax evasion? Sure. Scam? Fuck no. Sounds like the university be bad at Englishing.

      I don’t recall being allowed to carry my computer and internet connection, into the secure exam room. Ever.

      The problem, isn’t cheating. The problem, is being too stupid to know when to Flunk A Child Behind when they earned it AND being too corrupt to prevent cheating.

    • I'll say the obvious: because we all know that ChatGPT is used constantly for cheating. I'm no fan of this paid cheater, but 3 years of prison for that is stupid. Tax evasion? Sure. Scam? Fuck no. Sounds like the university be bad at Englishing.

      I'm guessing the three years wasn't for the cheating but the money laundering and unauthorized computr access, the cheating was just a by product of those crimes.

    • Do a bit more reading. Chat GPT is a tool, a person is a person who can make their own decisions. When you cheat with ChatGPT you are responsible. When you cheat by paying someone to take an exam on your behalf then you are both responsible. When this is done for financial gain by one party it becomes criminal fraud.

      The person jailed pleaded guilty to the following criminal offenses:
      1. Fraud by false representation - by claiming to be someone you are not you're in breach of the Fraud Act 2006. ChatGPT doesn

      • Damnation ... a literate & informative paragraph on SLASHDOT. Almost fell off my chair !
      • Hmm. Grounds for his conviction seem suspect and eligible for appeal:

        1. The person who has the contract with the academic institution, and thus the person who has committed fraud in relation to that contract, is the student, not the stand-in exam taker. The exam taker has a separate contract with the student, which taken in a narrow contract, was not performed fraudulently but rather at the instruction of the student and as specified and requested by the student. That is a private matter.

        2. His use of the s

        • Amusing reasoning.
          I hope you never help someone to commit a fraud/crime.

          No, I did not kill him! I only drove the killer to the spot of the crime!
          No, I did not kill him! I only buried the corpse! He was dead already! I swear!

          Note, idiot: if you had some morals you would know what is right and what is wrong. For idiots like you the rest of mankind made laws. If you fail to read them when in doubt about what is right and what is wrong: your problem.

        • Hmm. Grounds for his conviction seem suspect and eligible for appeal:

          He pleaded guilty. What's the appeal on? "Oh I actually meant I was innocent?" But to address your points directly:

          1. False. The student didn't do the false representation here. The stand-in exam taker was the one who pretended to be the student. Contracts, money, etc have zero to do with this. One person said they were someone else. That's it. That's ALL of it as far as the law is concerned.

          2. The student is not within the power or rights to give out that access. The use of someone else's credentials to ac

          • a. So if I talk to someone at a party and say "Hi my name is Arthur Dent" when it is not, I am guilty of a felony for false representation of myself as someone else? No. I suppose that the false representation must be part of a larger crime. So what, in this case, is the larger crime that the test-taker has commited, as opposed to that the student has committed? Also, it would seem that the extent of the student's misdeed is academic misconduct (i.e. violating the aforementioned implicit if not explicit con

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      Did you read the news to the end?

      "Adnan was accessing the university's network to submit fraudulent work and sit examinations on behalf of students"

      The problem is not that he solved the course work (using that result would be a misconduct by the students only), but that he sat in their examinations, which is clearly fraud. He probably also used credentials to access the network he should not have access to and similar fraudulent activity. Selling your service for solving course work and having a blind eye o

    • The law clearly states that if you're rich, then it's not a serious crime.

  • Crime details (Score:3)

    by tiananmen tank man ( 979067 ) on Monday June 22, 2026 @04:20AM (#66203656)

    So he got 3 years for logging in to a computer system with credentials that weren't his and money laundering

    • If only he had lived in the US, he could have appealed to the Supreme Court!

      • If only he had lived in the US, he could have appealed to the Supreme Court!

        Or "donate" to an appropriate "charity".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by wed128 ( 722152 )
          This sort of thing never happens outside of the united states. Nosiree, everywhere else is a paragon of the moral highground.
      • Well, he could have tried. SCOTUS almost never accepts an appeal unless their are constitutional issues involved. And, if this had happened in the US, the student would have been charged as an Accessory Before the Fact for providing any credentials, passwords or other documents needed to get into the exam room and both of them would be charged with Conspiracy to Defraud.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      He's also going to have to pay that money back, have all his assets seized to do so (proceeds of crime), and then the tax man is going to be asking "Hey, you earned £2m, right? Where's the tax on that?"

      Now that he's been jailed, they have years to unpick it all, file additional charges, seize everything he owned, even take any "gifts" that he gave to friends and family, and build a case for tax fraud to jail him further.

      • AI:

        Leland Stanford [founder of the school] engaged in numerous actions that would be considered prosecutable crimes todayâ"including massive financial fraud, embezzlement of public funds, and illegal self-dealing. He escaped legal accountability because he used his powerful connections and political offices to orchestrate what historians call one of the greatest raids on the public treasury in American history.

    • So he got 3 years for logging in to a computer system with credentials that weren't his and money laundering

      And impersonating another person. There were 3 crimes he was convicted of. He got off pretty lightly.

  • Consequences? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GeekWithAKnife ( 2717871 ) on Monday June 22, 2026 @06:43AM (#66203738)
    Are the people that had achieved degrees and other certification in a fraudulent fashion going to be stripped of those and potentially fired or expelled?

    This is not an isolated incident and there have been many stories of people achieving via fraudulent means and consequently we are all worse off for it. IMO they need to be named and shamed. Stripped of whatever they gained by cheating.

    Many years ago we had a new guy with a Masters in networking. Didn't know what are the network ranges for class A, B or C were. Couldn't say what the difference is between TCP & UDP. Had no idea about subnetting etc etc. His masters seemed more related to social networking.

    Ultimately an individual that gets certified or qualified in a fraudulent fashion is genuinely cheating themselves. They always run the risk of ventually getting found out and sometimes in very embarrassing fashion.

    P.S. - we trained LLMs on human data...is it a wonder why they are sometimes dishonest?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      Usually yes. Most examination regulations contain that they revoke your degree if they find you cheated. For minor misconducts there are sometimes clauses how they heal (if you for example cheat for the admission to the exam but then write the exam successfully you can often no longer get punished for cheating the admission), but having someone else write your exam does not count as minor.

  • How criminal of this middle easterner to be "living a lavish life style" with the money he earned. Scandalous! /s

    Then there is the "converting criminal property, otherwise known as money laundering"? Money laundering? For spending the money he earned through his service? He fancied up his house with his earnings? Criminal!

    Fucker had three bank accounts! THREE! Can you believe it? I have four. Perhaps I should emigrate before they pinch me for such dastardly deeds?

    And how is it unauthorized computer access/

  • I imagine that had the person just properly reported all of their income like any "legitimate" tutoring service would do, we would not be reading about this at all.

    Oh, and not handing their client a USB drive full of evidence of all their other clients probably would help.

    Having a society with so much importance placed on "credentialism" and so little importance placed on being able to actually do things doesn't help.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by wed128 ( 722152 )

      Having a society with so much importance placed on "credentialism" and so little importance placed on being able to actually do things doesn't help.

      The problem is that without some credentialing process, it's very hard to show that a person can actually do things. This creates perverse incentives such as cheating on exams (and generating thousands of low-effort AI-generated PRs for every github project...)

    • Having a society with so much importance placed on "credentialism" and so little importance placed on being able to actually do things doesn't help.

      I used to know a man who was trying to break into IT. The basis of his efforts was making sure he had the proper credentials for whatever position he was chasing. I don't know how many certs he ended up with, but they turned out to be a waste of time and money because I don't think he ever got into IT. What he never realized is that while certs may help, H

  • There are obviously tons of people offering services like that, because there are tons of "students" that do not actually want to learn anything. Most just never get caught. Also, obviously, the students graduating this way will find their "expertise" to be worthless.

    Fortunately, there are still (and probably always will be) enough students that actually want to learn and evolve their skills. We educators owe it to them to separate them from the dross though.

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