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It would seem this woman was attempting to con a supermarket out of a personal injury settlement after CCTV footage indicated she'd staged the alleged incident.
Woman who claims she was knocked over by child ‘running amok’ in Lidl loses €60,000 claim

A woman who claimed she was knocked over by a child “running amok” in a Lidl store has lost her €60,000 personal injuries claim against the supermarket. ...

Ms Zhang, an accountant, said she was shopping in Lidl’s Leixlip store in September 2017 when a boy aged about nine-years-old, who had been running amok in full view of staff, struck her from behind and knocked her to the ground. ...

Barrister Conor Kearney, who appeared ... for Lidl, told Judge Berkeley that Ms Zhang had initially pleaded her right leg had been injured but later told doctors it was her left leg.

He said that throughout the handling of her proceedings doctors who had treated or examined her had made no reference to the back injury she complained of in court. She had made no mention of a back injury when examined by a doctor on behalf of Lidl ...

Ms Zhang’s barrister told the court that CCTV of the incident had recorded the child running amok in the supermarket for six minutes.

Mr Kearney said CCTV requested by Ms Zhang’s legal team up until the time of the incident did not show her falling.

When cross-examining Ms Zhang about her evidence to the court he asked her to view additional CCTV of what had happened after the collision with the child.

“That CCTV shows footage of your own child walking around the store on its own opening fridges and cabinets,” Mr Kearney said. “From the extra footage it seems to me you put out your leg and you tripped up the child who fell over your leg and the child goes tumbling.” ...
FULL STORY: https://www.independent.ie/irish-ne...-amok-in-lidl-loses-60000-claim-41812349.html
 
I wouldn't have thought you could sue a company for what somebody else's kid does, and does that mean the parent of the kid can sue her now for deliberately tripping her kid up? :p
Some people are so litigious its just not funny anymore.
 
I wouldn't have thought you could sue a company for what somebody else's kid does, and does that mean the parent of the kid can sue her now for deliberately tripping her kid up? :p
Some people are so litigious its just not funny anymore.

The description of the CCTV footage is confusing. It shows Ms. Zhang's own child wandering around and messing with displayed items, and the phrasing insinuates it was Ms. Zhang's own child she tripped. It's unclear whether there were two children involved.
 
This California woman (a convicted embezzler) faked documents indicating she had cancer to avoid being sent to prison. Her chicanery bought her about 6 months' delay in incarceration. It also bought her a 200% increase in her prison sentence.
California woman fakes cancer, forges notes to avoid prison

One note submitted to the federal judge sentencing a 38-year-old California woman for embezzlement claimed that a biopsy had revealed “cancerous cells” in her uterus. Another indicated that she was undergoing a surgical procedure, and her cancer had spread to the cervix. Yet another letter warned she “cannot be exposed to COVID-19” because of her fragile state.

But federal officials say the notes and cancer were all fake, and now Ashleigh Lynn Chavez is headed to prison for three times as long. The court this week added an additional two years to her initial, one-year prison sentence.

The fake claim of having cancer kept Chavez out on bond from the time of her guilty plea in 2019 to embezzling more than $160,000 from her former employer through her sentencing hearing on March 31, 2021. The notes then bought her an additional three months of freedom by the judge who believed she was getting medical treatment ...

All told, Chavez was able to avoid being locked up for six months, federal officials said. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/health-c...embezzlement-7c8a0639b717d002c364a5590348e047
 
I wouldn't have thought you could sue a company for what somebody else's kid does, and does that mean the parent of the kid can sue her now for deliberately tripping her kid up? :p
Some people are so litigious its just not funny anymore.
Yes, you can sue the shop for negligence in not watching the kid for dangerous behavior.
 
That really winds me up as the bloody mother or dad or whomever the lil brat came in with is suppose to be responsible for the lil psycho's it just makes no sense.

They better get ready to get their lil brat out of a freezer if they hit me
 
Not quite sure if it's the world's dumbest criminals or a story about the most stupid dupes imaginable, but a fake IPL cricket league was set up in Gujarat, India, to fleece Russian gamblers of their money.

The cricket was provided by 21 farm labourers and unemployed youths, it was shot on five HD cameras with a commentary imitating the voice of actual IPL commentator Harsha Bhogle. I admire the chutzpah of the endeavour, if I'm allowed to use that word in this context!

The pic is from Bhogle's Twitter feed, with Bhogle himself highly amused by the whole thing!

[Mods - thanks for moving this post, I forgot this thread that is a much better home for it.]

[Edited again to include a video link. I think it's fair to say it's not convincing cricket. Even I'd have a chance of playing at that standard - my last game was for Bath Exiles third team in Bath's eighth division in the 1990s: nine not out from seven balls and two for 21 off seven overs (both clean bowled and witnessed by Mrs Cycleboy, who thinks I was good...):

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/v...ake-ipl-cricket-league-shown-on-youtube-video

FXW_eJ_agAEM08u.jpg
 
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This Morning fraudster who pretended to have dementia in £600k scam jailed with husband

Married Laura and Philip Borrell scammed their council for a 13-year care package by claiming her mother needed 24/7 care - then said Laura was diagnosed with dementia

A woman who appeared on ITV’s This Morning to tell the nation she was one of the youngest people ever to have dementia has been jailed along with her husband for their part in a £600,000 fraud.

Laura Borrell, 44, and Philip Borrell, 46, lived it up on benefits claims through Laura's mother Frances Noble, 66, pretending she was bedbound and unable to feed herself, needing round-the-clock care, between January 15 2007 and November 26 2018.

All three pleaded guilty to fraud after keeping the £733,936.20 they were handed for themselves.

Last month Noble, 66, was jailed for 4 years 9 months in her absence in what the judge said was possibly the largest fraud of its type to come before the English courts.

On Tuesday Laura Borrell was jailed for 3 years 9 months and Philip Borrell for 4 years 3 months.
In 2017 following their appearance on ITV the couple had created a Go Fund Me page so they could go on a road trip around America "before Laura's memory declined".

Well-wishers pledged more than £1,500 in funds

Neighbours become suspicious after a large number of packages arrived for the family at their Hitchin home in Hertfordshire.
One resident told The Times : “Delivery vans all day long - ordering lots of stuff, like money was no object.”

Another local said: “There were Amazon vans coming every single day. And then this brand new top-of-the-range Volvo arrived.

“You started thinking, what does he do? What does she do?”

Noble herself raised suspicions about the severity of her own alleged condition when she was seen by her neighbours walking her dog Bertie early in the morning and videoed by one of them as she walked around her back garden.

Prosecutor Andrew Johnson previously told St Albans Crown Court when one neighbour saw Noble in her back garden she pulled a hood over her face and said: "I am not Frances. I am her carer."

Noble, who had claimed she had been on a liquid diet, was filmed eating with her daughter in a restaurant. On another occasion, a care worker turned up at her home to find her standing up, naked in the bathroom and washing her hair.

Etc.
 

This Morning fraudster who pretended to have dementia in £600k scam jailed with husband

Married Laura and Philip Borrell scammed their council for a 13-year care package by claiming her mother needed 24/7 care - then said Laura was diagnosed with dementia

A woman who appeared on ITV’s This Morning to tell the nation she was one of the youngest people ever to have dementia has been jailed along with her husband for their part in a £600,000 fraud.

Laura Borrell, 44, and Philip Borrell, 46, lived it up on benefits claims through Laura's mother Frances Noble, 66, pretending she was bedbound and unable to feed herself, needing round-the-clock care, between January 15 2007 and November 26 2018.

All three pleaded guilty to fraud after keeping the £733,936.20 they were handed for themselves.

Last month Noble, 66, was jailed for 4 years 9 months in her absence in what the judge said was possibly the largest fraud of its type to come before the English courts.

On Tuesday Laura Borrell was jailed for 3 years 9 months and Philip Borrell for 4 years 3 months.


Etc.
Be good if they had to spend their lives paying it back also. TBH 18-24 months for 300 grand seems like a decent deal.
 
Fake nun banned from monastery.

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/su...stery-after-eccentric-behaviour-41514670.html

"A fake nun banned by a court from going within 150 yards of a monastery says she is praying for its parishioners.

Rachel Mulcahy was served with an interim injunction after priests at Clonard complained about her behaviour.

Dressed in a brown habit, the bogus nun disrupted several services at the west Belfast church which is famous for its annual summer novena. An application for a full injunction will be heard at Laganside court later this month."

She's still at it. I saw her on Friday or Saturday, outside the GPO, screaming, literally speaking in tongues. She was hassling several other preachers who are more moderate in their speaking styles.

A “FAKE nun” accused of public order offences outside Dublin’s GPO has said she is only guilty of “preaching the word of God on O’Connell Street.”

Rachel Mulcahy (43) denied the charges against her before her case was adjourned at Dublin District Court.

Ms Mulcahy, with an address at Locan Street, Beechmount, Belfast is charged with threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and failing to comply with garda directions in the alleged incident on June 17.

When she appeared in court, Ms Mulcahy did not have legal representation and told Judge Bryan Smyth she wished to represent herself.

A garda sergeant said a summary of the prosecution’s evidence would be furnished to the accused and there was no CCTV footage available..

Judge Smyth asked Ms Mulcahy if she wanted to put the case back to consider the summary of evidence.

“I am happy to continue now,” he replied. “I am guilty of preaching the word of God on O’Connell Street.”

Judge Smyth said this was not what she was charged with and read the charges out to her.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-ne...ty-of-preaching-the-word-of-god-41860745.html
 
Fake buskers are alleged to be a growing trend in the USA ...
Police say people pretending to play violin for money a 'nationwide issue'

Police across the country have been warning the public about people pretending to play violins to solicit donations ...

After getting a tip from a concerned viewer, News Channel 3 found a man appearing to play violin outside the Target store on South Westnedge Avenue in Portage Monday afternoon. As he performed, he stood next to a sign that read, "DAD WITH 3 KIDS PLEASE HELP FOR FOOD AND RENT."

When News Channel 3 approached him and asked him about his performance, a woman sitting beside him said they don't speak English. As the man was holding his violin down, with his bow away from the strings, violin music began playing from his speaker.

After telling the man that some viewers were concerned about him pretending to play violin to solicit money, News Channel 3 asked him for his perspective. He responded that he does not speak English. News Channel 3 noted that his sign asking for donations is in English, and asked him who made the sign. The man then packed up and left the shopping center without further comment. ...
FULL STORY: https://wwmt.com/news/local/violin-portage-target-violinist-solicit-money-donation-westnedge
 
Fantasist convinced lovers and family he was secret agent in 25-year web of lies

John Hare, 53, duped at least four girlfriends, his wife, his parents and his two children into thinking that he was an operative working for MI5

In reality, he was a 53-year-old farmer from Murton, Co Durham, with a green waste recycling business.
He was jailed for having the guns he kept in his chicken coop and used to keep up his spy charade.

Hare was also convicted of assaulting one long-term lover, punching and slapping her across the face.

It emerged he took one mum-of-two abroad and for weekend breaks in the UK while seeing the other women and had one lover so besotted that she left her husband of 46 years. The woman was still convinced they were an item even as he was jailed.

At the time of his arrest in May 2020, Hare was romantically involved with five women including his wife of almost 25 years.

Sentencing him to five years at Newcastle crown court for assault, possession of a firearm and criminal damage, Judge Edward Bindloss told Hare his victim believed “you had some kind of connection to the secret service and agents and had killed people due to your work”. But he added: “That was all complete fantasy.”
 
This Kansas woman has been charged with 111 counts of identity theft and fraud for habitually using other folks' credentials to buy things. The 111 counts' bases represent only the ones discovered to date, and so far they date only as far back as 2021.
Lawrence woman faces 111 counts in habitual identity theft, fraud case

A Lawrence, Kansas, woman was arrested for her suspected role in habitual identity theft and fraud.

According to the Lawrence Police Department, 25-year-old Billie Jean Peterson is charged with felony theft and 26 counts of criminal use of financial card, 28 counts of unlawful computer acts and 56 counts of identity theft or charging thousands of dollars to co-workers, friends and neighbors’ accounts.

Police were first notified about the identity theft by a group of Peterson’s coworkers at a dental office who compared fraudulent charges on their accounts in March. ...

The trail of evidence led investigators to find more potential victims dating back to June 2021 and a search warrant was issued and executed.

The warrant uncovered even more potential victims. ...
FULL STORY: https://fox4kc.com/news/lawrence-woman-faces-111-counts-in-habitual-identity-theft-fraud-case/
 
Brazilian police have shut down a major fraud scheme involving fake seers and conning an art dealer's widow out of millions of pounds' worth of money and stolen artworks.
Brazilian police find stolen painting worth almost £50m under bed

A painting by one of Brazil’s most celebrated artists – the pioneering modernist Tarsila do Amaral – has been found stashed under the bed of an alleged trickster who was part of a multimillion pound art heist built around the bogus predictions of a phoney clairvoyant.

The artwork, worth an estimated 300m reais (£48m), was reportedly found in Rio on Wednesday morning during a police operation targeting a gang of con artists who had preyed on the elderly widow of an art dealer and collector.

Four people were arrested, including the victim’s own daughter whom police accuse of stealing 16 paintings, worth an estimated 709m reais (£114m) from her 82-year-old mother. ...

According a police statement, the scam began in January 2020 when the victim’s daughter hired a fake clairvoyant who was tasked with approaching her mother as she came out of a bank in Copacabana.

The charlatan crystal gazer falsely claimed the woman’s daughter was on the verge of dying and took her to a fortune teller and an Afro-Brazilian priestess who confirmed that false prediction.

Police claim the trio offered to intervene spiritually – for a fee – and over the coming weeks received hundreds of thousands of pounds for their pseudo efforts.

When the widow became suspicious and refused to continue paying, she was forcibly confined to her home in Rio’s wealthy southern beach district, threatened, beaten and gradually robbed of the art collection she had inherited from her late husband. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...nd-stolen-painting-worth-almost-50m-under-bed
 
A "self-taught pathology assistant" who illegally performed autopsies for a fee has been convicted and fined more than US $700,000. He's still facing wire fraud charges relating to bilking over 300 people out of fees for autopsies that didn't result in reports being issued to the contracting clients.
Man who performed illegal autopsies can't work in Kansas

A Kansas man convicted of performing illegal autopsies has been permanently banned from doing business in the state and ordered to pay more than $700,000 in restitution and fines, Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced Wednesday.

Shawn Parcells, 42, who lived in Leawood and Topeka, was convicted in November of three felonies and three misdemeanors related to providing illegal autopsies in Wabaunsee County. He also pleaded guilty in May to one federal wire fraud charge related to the autopsies.

The Wabaunsee County crimes took place in 2014 and 2015. ...

Schmidt filed a lawsuit in 2019 accusing Parcells, a self-taught pathology assistant with no formal education, of contracting with Wabaunsee County to conduct autopsies and then not completing them according to state law, including not having a licensed pathologist present.

The judge also banned Parcells and his companies from doing any business in Kansas related to the human body, or performing any services regulated as a healing art, including any COVID-related services. ...

Before his guilty plea in federal court, Parcells faced 10 counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors allege that at least 375 people paid him more than $1.1 million between May 2016 and May 2019 for a full pathological study and diagnosis of a family member’s cause of death but the families never received the full autopsy reports. ...
FULL STORY: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-performed-illegal-autopsies-work-kansas-88205682
 

US judges took millions in bribes to send kids to prison

Two former state judges who took bribes to send hundreds of children to prison have been ordered to pay more than $200million for the scheme.

In the so-called kids-for-cash scandal, Pennsylvania state judges Mark Ciavarella, 72, and Michael Conahan, 70, shuttered a county-run juvenile detention center in exchange for $2.8million in illegal payments from the co-owner and builder of two for-profit jails.

US District Judge Christopher Conner has awarded almost 300 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the judges, with $106million in compensatory damages and $100million in punitive damages.
The victims are ‘the tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions’, Conner wrote in the judgment explanation on Tuesday.

Presiding over juvenile court, Ciaverella held to a zero-tolerance policy that resulted in many children as young as eight years old winding up at the for-profit facilities – PA Child Care or Western PA Child Care. Many of the kids were sent for minor infractions like smoking, truancy, jay walking and petty theft, and had no prior violations.

Ciaverella is serving a 28-year prison sentence in Kentucky, and is scheduled to be released in 2035.

Meanwhile, Conohan is serving a more than 17-year sentence but was released to home confinement with six years left in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The state Supreme Court threw out about 4,000 juvenile convictions that more than 2,300 children were subjected to after the scheme was busted.

‘Their cruel and despicable actions victimized a vulnerable population of young people, many of whom were suffering from emotional issues and mental health concerns.’

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Marsha Levick, who is the co-founder and chief counsel of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, on Wednesday called the judgement ‘a huge victory’.

‘To have an order from a federal court that recognizes the gravity of what the judges did to these children in the midst of some of the most critical years of their childhood and development matters enormously,’ said Levick, ‘Whether or not the money gets paid.’

The scandal was among the worst ever uncovered within the justice system in the US.
 
A cop con.

An Indian gang operated a fake police station from a hotel for eight months where they dressed up as officers and are believed to have extorted money from hundreds of people, officials have said.

Incidents of fraudsters pretending to be police or soldiers are common in India, where there is widespread fear and respect for those in uniform, but setting up a phoney police station takes the scams up a level.

The gang in Bihar state set up shop barely 500 metres from the home of the actual local police chief and wore uniforms with rank badges and carried guns, police official - a real one - D.C. Srivastava said.

They would then charge money from locals coming into the fake station to file complaints and cases, while pocketing cash from others by promising to help them secure social housing or jobs in the police.

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2022/0818/1316498-india-fake-police-station/
 
A real-life example from decades ago was told to me when I worked for Liberty's of London.

On the first day of the Harrod's sale, a smartly-dressed bloke turned up with his own cash register, and cash float. He then proceeded to make sales during that one day, even getting another temp staff member to take his place while he went to lunch. Then, just before the store closed, he bagged up the cash takings, tore up the credit card receipts he'd 'swiped' (it was in the days before card readers), put a cover on the cash till and walked out the door.
Whether apocryphal or not, it was recounted all around the West End as a lesson to permanent staff to always check up on temp staff, many of which were only employed for sales.

Another tale was of two blokes in overalls, carrying a clipboard, entered Liberty's carpet department, targeting a new member of staff who helped them roll up and load their van with several thousand pounds worth of stock. I know this was true ... because I recall the utter righteous fury that the Director of Security expended on all his staff, even the hapless newbie, for letting this happen! :D
 
13 years is a pretty harsh sentence - and this being China, it may not have been that fraudulent at all:

https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-0...xiao-jianhuas-tomorrow-holding-101583306.html

Secretive billionaire Xiao Jianhua’s Tomorrow Holding Co. Ltd. found itself back under the spotlight after the Chinese government last week seized control of nine companies linked to the fallen tycoon’s financial empire.

The once-freewheeling conglomerate has been one of the highest-profile targets of China’s crackdown on risks to the financial system. For years, Tomorrow Holding hid behind layers of shell companies and complicated transactions as it forged ahead with a debt-fueled expansion that put its clients and other financial institutions at risk.

The seizures mark a major step in regulators’ efforts to dismantle Xiao’s hidden empire, following last year’s takeover of Inner Mongolia-based Baoshang Bank Co. Ltd., a debt-ridden lender controlled by the billionaire.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...o-jianhua-jailed-china?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A reclusive figure, Xiao’s massive business fortune was turned upside down in January 2017 when he was whisked out of Hong Kong’s Four Seasons hotel in a wheelchair allegedly by plainclothes Chinese security agents, who at the time were not permitted to operate in Hong Kong.

He was taken across the border into China, possibly by boat to avoid immigration checks, according to a report in the New York Times.
 
A real-life example from decades ago was told to me when I worked for Liberty's of London.

On the first day of the Harrod's sale, a smartly-dressed bloke turned up with his own cash register, and cash float. He then proceeded to make sales during that one day, even getting another temp staff member to take his place while he went to lunch. Then, just before the store closed, he bagged up the cash takings, tore up the credit card receipts he'd 'swiped' (it was in the days before card readers), put a cover on the cash till and walked out the door.
Whether apocryphal or not, it was recounted all around the West End as a lesson to permanent staff to always check up on temp staff, many of which were only employed for sales.

Another tale was of two blokes in overalls, carrying a clipboard, entered Liberty's carpet department, targeting a new member of staff who helped them roll up and load their van with several thousand pounds worth of stock. I know this was true ... because I recall the utter righteous fury that the Director of Security expended on all his staff, even the hapless newbie, for letting this happen! :D
There are many stories of theft of sales for theatre tickets. The simplest is the one dating back to the 30's when it was discovered that a manager of a large theatre in the midwest had installed four extra seats in the auditorium that were not on the official "manifest" of the seats in the house. For every performance and year after year he pocketed the sales revenue for those four seats. The owner of the theatre tried to promote him to a better job in a larger city and he refused. It was not discovered until after he died and a new manager was hired. This kind of scam is why when I was being trained as a theatre manager responsible to the owner I was taught to count the seats in each theatre and compare them with the manifest.
 
There are many stories of theft of sales for theatre tickets. The simplest is the one dating back to the 30's when it was discovered that a manager of a large theatre in the midwest had installed four extra seats in the auditorium that were not on the official "manifest" of the seats in the house. For every performance and year after year he pocketed the sales revenue for those four seats.
I don't get it. Surely that only works if the performance sells out?
 
I don't get it. Surely that only works if the performance sells out?
It works if the seats are prime seats that would be sold first. It also works if you cut the box office mgr in on it.
 
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This woman faked her own kidnapping to con her mother into paying a $50,000 ransom. As it turned out, this was the fourth time the daughter had used her own faked abduction to swindle her mother.
Police Arrest Woman Who Faked Her Own Kidnapping to Extort Her Mom—for the Fourth Time

The worried parent had already been swindled out of $44,500 in three bogus threats to her daughter’s life.

The terrifying video shows a woman blindfolded, blood dripping from her mouth. Standing behind her, a man holds a knife to his captive’s throat. “Mommy. They’ve kidnapped me, Mommy, and I don’t know why,” sobs the young woman in the frame. “You can’t say anything to the police. If you do, they’ll kill me.”

But the supposed victim’s life was never actually in danger, authorities say—in fact, she faked the whole thing. ...

The 30-year-old woman and four others were arrested on the Spanish island of Tenerife, the Civil Guard said in a statement, over an alleged plot to extort a ransom payment out of the arrested woman’s mother.

The surreal plot involved using fake blood to bolster the con’s realism, with the “victim” telling her mother in the video that her captors had beaten her. She added in the clip that she’d been deprived of food and wouldn’t be released until the gang that kidnapped her received a $50,000 ransom. ...

When her worried mother received the blood-curdling clip, the concerned parent duly withdrew cash to pay the ransom. Incredibly, investigators would later discover that the mother had already made similar payments totaling $45,000 on three previous occasions when she’d received menacing letters threatening the life of her daughter ...

Local authorities centered their investigation of the partner of the real victim’s daughter and uncovered that his family was involved in the kidnapping plot ... Although the case was initially treated as a real kidnapping, officers quickly found that the supposed victim was fine, and free to come and go as she liked.

When authorities arrested the group over the alleged scheme, the woman in the clip and her accused co-conspirators were living it up at a slot-machine casino. Civil Guard investigators also found the fake blood and the knife used in the video.

They now face charges including extortion and other offenses, with an extortion charge alone carrying a sentence between one and five years imprisonment in Spain. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.thedailybeast.com/polic...dnapping-to-extort-her-momfor-the-fourth-time
 
Three Florida teachers have lost their jobs and face criminal charges for a scam involving cheating on certification tests. The scammers earned circa $36,000 from their efforts. The estimated damage is over $700,000 and more than 1,000 invalidated tests.
3 Pasco teachers arrested in testing scandal at Hudson High, FDLE says

Three Pasco County teachers made sure students passed industry certification tests and did so hundreds of times over four years in a criminal scheme that was all about money, authorities announced Friday.

They said some of the students did not know they were taking exams.

Arrested Thursday were Robert Herrington, 38; Harold Martin III, 47; and Kathleen Troutman, 31, all former teachers at Hudson High School. They were charged with scheming to defraud, a second-degree felony.

Troutman and Herrington have resigned their school jobs. Martin is on unpaid leave.

“Plain and simple, this was a cheating scandal,” Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Mark Brutnell said at a news conference. “Greed and cheating.” ...

The case involves a web of agencies and organizations that include Agriculture Education Services & Technology, known as AEST, a subsidiary of the Florida Farm Bureau. ...

The subsidiary works with the Department of Education to provide tests that give students the credentials they need for careers in agriculture. When students pass the tests, school districts like Pasco get bonus money that they use to fund the agriculture classes. Teachers get bonuses too — $25 or $50, depending on the test.

The exams are supposed to be administered with independent proctors, and without written materials. ...

The agency alleges the three teachers took the exams, then made copies of them that they fashioned into study guides. Between 2017 and 2021, they allegedly administered the tests improperly, sometimes allowing students to bring their study guides with them and sometimes feeding them the answers.

They enlisted some students to photograph exam pages that were then used to update the study guides, the FDLE said.

State officials allege the three teachers pocketed a combined $36,000. They estimate the total damages at more than $700,000, including money the district might have to return to AEST for bonuses that it did not rightfully earn.

Brutnell said he was most offended to learn the teachers engineered passing scores for learning disabled students who might not have known they were taking exams.

On paper, the results were phenomenal. An audit by AEST revealed that Hudson High students were completing exams in as little as five minutes that normally take 30 to 45 minutes. ...

“Hudson High School had a higher pass rate than any other school in Florida,” Brutnell said.

“Hudson High School issued the most certificates statewide, 10 times the number of the school behind them.” ...

More than 1,000 tests at Hudson High have been invalidated, and arrangements are being made so the affected students can retake them for free.

In the meantime, Brutnell said, the investigation is ongoing. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.tampabay.com/news/educa...-in-testing-scandal-at-hudson-high-fdle-says/
 
A conman and a fantasist - making claims which could easily be disproved.

A man who describes himself as a CIA operative using 150 aliases will have his trial for allegedly behaving in a threatening manner on September 13.

The accused appeared by video link from prison at Cork District Court, simply for the purpose of having a date set for the hearing.

“This is the case against Fahd Ayat, otherwise James Mack, otherwise 150 other names,” Judge Colm Roberts said.

It was the fourth time the same man appeared before Cork District Court this week in relation to the case..

On Monday, he called the judge a scumbag and was found in contempt of court.

On Tuesday, he apologised and said he was living at the American Embassy in Dublin, is a CIA operative and is CEO of an international company with assets of €15bn having high level military contracts in America, France and Israel.

On Thursday, Sergeant John Kelleher, said the embassy told him: “Mr Mack or Ayat did not reside at any time in the American embassy. They have no details of him.”

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40958453.html
 
Three Florida teachers have lost their jobs and face criminal charges for a scam involving cheating on certification tests. The scammers earned circa $36,000 from their efforts. The estimated damage is over $700,000 and more than 1,000 invalidated tests.

FULL STORY: https://www.tampabay.com/news/educa...-in-testing-scandal-at-hudson-high-fdle-says/
Teachers pocketed $36,000 combined! Wow, obviously not good at math nor estimating risk vs reward. All of that and losing your job for $12,000. Morons.
 
Well, the more discovery of 'bribed/bought' qualifications might actually devalue their offer.
 
A conman and a fantasist - making claims which could easily be disproved.

A man who describes himself as a CIA operative using 150 aliases will have his trial for allegedly behaving in a threatening manner on September 13.

The accused appeared by video link from prison at Cork District Court, simply for the purpose of having a date set for the hearing.

“This is the case against Fahd Ayat, otherwise James Mack, otherwise 150 other names,” Judge Colm Roberts said.

It was the fourth time the same man appeared before Cork District Court this week in relation to the case..

On Monday, he called the judge a scumbag and was found in contempt of court.

On Tuesday, he apologised and said he was living at the American Embassy in Dublin, is a CIA operative and is CEO of an international company with assets of €15bn having high level military contracts in America, France and Israel.

On Thursday, Sergeant John Kelleher, said the embassy told him: “Mr Mack or Ayat did not reside at any time in the American embassy. They have no details of him.”

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40958453.html


Will the CIA spring him?

A self-described CIA operative using 150 aliases accused a garda of lying that he threatened to dance on his head but said that “being part of a higher law enforcement authority I am not in the business of ruining other member’s careers.”

Judge Colm Roberts convicted the man he described as “Fahd Ayat, otherwise James Mack, otherwise 150 other names” on the charge of engaging in threatening behaviour and jailed him for one month.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40960835.html
 
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