The lecturer managed to swindle nearly US$10,000 out of over 100 students

A Ho Chi Minh City university lecturer has been condemned to suspended 18 months for duping students into taking courses whose test results were not recognized by their school.

Over 100 students failing their English courses were convinced to pay about US$100 each to retake the courses and final exams, only to find themselves defrauded.

The fraudster convicted on Thursday is Nguyen Van Huyen, a 41-year-old resident in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City, former head English lecturer of the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in Go Vap District.

A number of students who failed the English courses taught by Huyen were offered to retake the courses and resit the final exams as there were no classes available for registration at that time.

Huyen started sending emails to his students notifying them of the schedule and location for the lectures, quoting a fee ranging from $100 to $150 depending on the course.

He managed to gain about $9,664 from over 100 students joining this ‘unofficial’ course.

Lectures would take place frequently at night in the dormitory.

After the final exams in early 2012, Huyen submitted the results to the English department, expecting them to be registered to the credit system.

Waiting for half a year without seeing any results on the student’s portal, some students reported the incident to the university management board.

The submitted results turned out to be invalid as the students had not registered any course and had not paid their tuition fee to the actual financial department, going against the guidelines of the credit system.

The university management held Huyen accountable for his actions and eventually terminated his contract after confirming the fraud.

The fraud was brought to the municipal People’s Court in March 2015, where he admitted to the crime and promised to cooperate in the investigation.

Huyen also agreed to return the money to the defrauded students yet could not recall how many students had enrolled in this course.

He was finally charged for fraud on Thursday after a few days standing trial.

He was given an 18-month suspended sentence as his redeeming act was considered a mitigating circumstance by the people’s court.