Rogue colleges in cash-for-certificates scam
Chris Johnston
August 11, 2008

ROGUE trades colleges in Melbourne are taking illegal payments from visa-seeking international students in cash-for-certificates scams, an Age investigation has found.

The fraud works by overseas students paying college owners or migration agents to get bogus paperwork certifying attendance and results. The students rarely turn up for classes.
The going rate for fake certificates is $5000. Some pay up to $9000. Overseas students seeking permanent residence in Australia must satisfy attendance rules. Many are more interested in living here than studying here and are complicit in the scams.

A federal immigration source said some migration agents, often unlicensed, set up organised crime networks and got away with "massive" frauds. A multi-agency probe involving immigration, education and tax office investigators is closing in on several people in the migration and vocational education sectors.
The Age has also found that a college owner had some of his Indian students allegedly working for nothing as "basic training" in a 7-Eleven store he also owns. A former student of Della International College said he worked for 17 days in the Sunshine 7-Eleven last year for no pay. The student, from northern India, asked that his name not be used. After enrolling at Della, owner Amanjot "Aman" Singh offered him "training" for one month.

"I got not one single penny for 17 days. Then he said there was no job and to get out, to go from the store," the student said.

When contacted by The Age, Mr Singh said: "I don't see from my memory there was ever any Della students there. I don't have anything like that going on in there. We live in Australia, not the Third World."

Mr Singh's lawyer, Ben Hardwick of Slater & Gordon, said in a statement that only Mr Singh and his two brothers worked at the store until October last year, and that none of the five subsequent employees were Della students. But "as part of my client's community contribution" to recently arrived Indian students, he has "regularly provided the opportunity" for "basic training" to "increase their prospects" of work, Mr Hardwick said.
Mr Singh did not tell the students that they would "be offered employment" at his store, Mr Hardwick said. A former employee of Della who had opened his own competing college "may have an ulterior motive" to spread misinformation.

Della teaches business management and food processing from the fourth floor of a Bourke Street building. It was temporarily suspended by the state's regulatory body last year for breaches of its accreditation.

It is one of Victoria's 1100 vocational or trades colleges known as registered training organisations. More than 100 more are awaiting approval. Fees can be up to $20,000.
Mr Singh's brother, Sukhminderjot Bedi, is involved in two similar colleges. Company records show he owns the Sunshine College of Management - where courses include hairdressing and baking - and is a previous director and current shareholder of the Victorian Institute of Training and Learning (VITAL).
When The Age visited the Sunshine 7-Eleven, the Indian student working there said he was enrolled at VITAL, but was being paid for working in the store. Mr Singh initially denied knowledge of his brother. They are listed on company documents as living at the same house in Cairnlea.
Mr Hardwick denied the college was also involved in cash-for-certificates scams. He said it had a rigorous system for assessment by college staff and management. "The inference that all of these personnel have engaged in corrupt practices is very offensive to my client."
But a former Della student said he paid $3000 for certificates to do with a business management course last year, having already paid fees. He said he was told by Mr Singh: "We are allowed. It's just a game."
Another former Della student, a 21-year-old Pakistani who asked that his name be given as Virk, said he paid $2500 for a semester he had already paid for. It was, he said, put to him as "re-enrolment".
Receipts show in late 2006 and early last year he paid two amounts from an Eftpos machine belonging to Singh 2005 Pty Ltd, Amanjot Singh's company. A third receipt, for a cash payment of $1000, is signed by "Adm Staff" on Della letterhead. "I know of 50 others who did this," Virk said.

Mr Hardwick said there was no such thing as "re-enrolment", but if a student failed a course unit it cost $250 to try again. "I am instructed that it is possible that a student could fail 10 units," he said.
A former graphic design student from another college, the Australian Institute of Professional Training, Han Wang, of Box Hill, said she paid $6000 for bogus certificates and attendance records that she never received. The college operated until recently from an upper level in a Little Bourke Street building.