Cheating York student on trial for 15 fraud charges
A former University of York student and an accomplice have appeared in court charged with 15 counts of fraud after allegedly attempting to cheat in an exam.
Elnar Askerov of Azerbaijan, 22, and his French accomplice Jerome Drean, 34, were both arrested at the University on May 11 when it is alleged that Drean was caught impersonating Askerov in his final year Economics exam.
The pair, who bear little physical resemblance, appeared before York Magistrates’ Court on August 14, each facing 15 counts of fraud relating to the use of fake University identity cards. Neither defendant entered a plea at the hearing. The case has been adjourned until November 12.
Askerov is charged with six counts of possessing an ID card for the use of fraud, four counts of possessing a false ID card for use in fraud, and four charges of falsely claiming to be Drean. Drean faces five counts of using a false ID card to defraud the University, four counts of possessing an ID card for use in fraud and four counts of falsely claiming to be Askerov.
Drean is also accused of possessing £4,000 in criminal assets in his home, believed to be the fee paid to him by Askerov. The conspiracy between the two is alleged to have lasted for 17 months, from January 2006 to May 2007, during which time Drean may have sat as many as four major exams for Askerov.
It is unclear why Drean, formerly a successful investment banking executive, agreed to undertake the risky venture for relatively little pay. Drean joined Credit Suisse as head of European equity derivatives trading in April 2007 before resigning less than five weeks later, allegedly as a result of the cheating allegations.
Two other men, York student Qiu Shi Zhang and accomplice Xian Zhang, were arrested on the same day for similar but unrelated offences. As Nouse reported in June, both pleaded guilty to multiple charges of fraud after Qiu Shi persuaded Xian, a student from Birmingham whom he knew from his home in Guangdong province, China, to sit his exams for him.
Xian was not an Economics student, and the court was told by the pair’s solicitor that Qiu Shi was suffering “something of a breakdown” at the time of the offence. No money was exchanged between the two and both men were sentenced to 100 hours of community service.
It is believed that neither Qiu Shi nor Askerov were allowed to graduate due to the severity of their offences. A University spokesperson said: “We cannot comment on individual cases, however students found guilty of serious academic misconduct, such as impersonation, are normally failed, and are not allowed to re-sit their degrees.”
Speaking at the end of last term, former YUSU Academic and Welfare Officer Amy Foxton said: “I think the international students suffer from more problems in this area. A higher proportion of them get accused of things like academic misconduct. The University needs to give its international students enough support and not just take their fees from them.”
Last year, there were 68 cases of academic misconduct where students were warned that another offence would lead to their expulsion. 15 were cases in which a student was caught in some form of cheating during a University exam.
T G
Being a York university Graduate i find this terrible.
But having working in Azerbaijan, this does not suprise me at all.
It is sad when someone out of desperation resorts to cheating. But in this case it is disgusting that someone should behave in such a way when there are many hardworking students putting every hour they can in to pass their exams.
Quite obviously someone who comes from a somewhere where the average wage is still in the few hundred dollars a month and who has $8000 dollars to throw away because they can not be bothered working needs to be not only removed from the university but deported also.
It is a terrible slur on all of the hard working honest york students who try their hardest to succeed. But sadly these kind of people will just buy their way into somewhere else and do it all again.
Karen
This is horrible. They cheat so that they can pass the exam. So this could be possible in taking board exams. This is very alarming and unfair.