A fraudster is facing jail after tricking university students into applying for more loans than they were entitled to and pocketing a cut from the profits.
Waleed Mohamed, 26, logged into students’ loan accounts and completed a change of circumstances form stating they had moved out of their parental home.
This entitled each undergraduate to up to £3,444 more. Mohamed would then take a cut of the money.
Prosecutors said he used the money to fund his lifestyle and pay for holidays to Morocco and Canada. He is thought to have tricked more than 20 students and pocketed £33,653.
The Student Loans Company paid out an extra £73,267 as a result of the scam.
Mohamed was caught after the loans company became suspicious after seeing a spike in students claiming they were living away from parents’ homes despite going to London universities.
Nigel Drewry, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Mohamed was part of a fraud that resulted in dozens of overpaid student loans.”
Mohamed, who pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud in December, was due to be sentenced today at Harrow crown court.
The students are believed to have thought the process was legitimate but will still have to pay back the loans in full in the normal way.
