A Cambridge University student has been sentenced to jail after he allegedly participated in examination fraud, which smuggled undocumented immigrants into the UK.
Junhua Yu, a 24-year-old getting his MA in architecture at Darwin College Cambridge, allegedly used fake passports to pose as other Chinese nationals during English language exams needed to get student visas, in exchange for cash.
Authorities arrested Yu in March as he was about to sit for another exam using a fake identity. Police later found Yu in posession of a shoe box full of fake passports.
Police charged Yu with possessing an identification document with improper intention and with conspiracy to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law. He was sentenced to a year of jail time.
Yu's defense attorney, Michael Duffy, said told the court that Yu found the scam on the internet in a bid to make extra money.
“My client was not the main organiser or counterfeiter here at all," Duffy argued, "It’s fair to say his entire studies have pretty much been wasted now as he now has a criminal record."
A Cambridge University spokesman said Yu "will not be continuing with his studies at Cambridge."