Cheating may land you in jail!
Article 1 taken from Immigration News (Volume 155) dated 24th November 2009:
IELTS centres around the world are constantly on the look out for people who try and cheat on the IELTS test. As spoke to Elizabeth Kerrison, the Australian Regional Manager of IELTS (IELTS is now owned by Global Education Services IDP Education Pty Ltd), IELTS are trying to educate candidates that they are likely to be caught if they try and cheat on their exams.
IELTS also has a verification process where by end users of the results (such as DIAC and universities) can verify the authenticity of the marks obtained. Ms. Kerrison stated “To ensure procedural fairness to candidates, our verification process involves a multipoint data check including accessing candidate data from the centre location, with cross checking against both the TRF verification website data and data held in the central database”.
There are also many security features built into the actual original print of an IELTS test result but understandably IELTS wish to keep that information to themselves. If you get caught either providing DIAC with an IELTS result where you may have cheated in the exam or if you have provided a false document, you may receive a knock on the door where a police officer will serve you a Court Attendance Notice charging you with a criminal offence. The notice will probably say something like this;
Description of the Offence: Cause to be presented false or forged document
Time and Date of Offence: (when you lodged the document to DIAC)
Place of Offence: (where you lived at that time)
Short Particulars:
Mr X being a non-citizen did in connection with his immigration status under the General Skilled Migration Program, cause to be presented, to an officer or a person exercising powers or performing functions under the Migration Act 1958, a document, namely an IELTS result purporting to be from Global Examination Services IDP Education Pty Ltd containing information that is false or misleading in a material particular.
Statutory Provision Describing the Offence: Section 234(1)(a), Migration Act 1958
This offence can carry a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in jail. It is unlikely you would actually go to jail for a first offence but it will still be a criminal record which would probably stop you from entering Australia again or even if you have permanent residency already granted, it would be enough to have it cancelled.
Of course the example above applies to any false documentation given to DIAC for your migration application to Australia. We have tried for years for DIAC to start actively explaining to students what can happen if applicants give false documents but to no avail. For years international students have naively listen to corrupt individuals who have helped them organised false documentation to DIAC. The students often have absolutely no idea of what consequences their actions may bring and so not realise the criminal charge that may await them in the future.
