Immigration fraudster jailed for a year

An unemployed man who cheated 50,000 yuan (US$7,113) from a Chinese student studying in Australia and his girlfriend by offering immigration services has been sentenced to one year in jail for fraud, said prosecutors in Xuhui District on Monday.

According to the Xuhui District People's Procuratorate, the victim Fang's study in Australia almost finished at the end of 2015.

But Fang hoped to stay in the country through immigration with his girlfriend Chen.

Fan, who used to work for an overseas study agency in Shanghai and had helped Fang with his application for studying abroad, offered assistance.

He contacted Chen frequently via WeChat and QQ, telling her that he had opened an immigration agency.

He claimed the agency was cooperating with a lawyer who specialized in Australian immigration and was looking for customers who wanted to immigrate there.

He won the two victims' trust and Chen transferred 50,000 yuan to his bank account in January 2016. Chen then handed the documents required for immigration to Fan, who gave her a forged contract and receipt in return.

However, Fang and Chen never received the assessment result after that and every time they asked Fan about that, he responded that it took some time. When they asked to meet the lawyer, Fan rejected their request.

They lost contact with Fan in November 2016. 

The next year Chen found news about Fan forging materials for a student and being fired from his previous company.

She reported it to Xuhui police and Fan was arrested by officers in September 2017. 

Fan confessed to the fraud and said the 50,000 yuan had been all used up for his own needs.