Written By Jack J Collins, Editor of AllAboutLaw.co.uk

AAL Bizarre: 'James Bond' gadget cheat thrown out of Law school

Written By Jack J Collins, Editor of AllAboutLaw.co.uk

The annual report from the Office of the International Adjudicator has thrown up a truly bizarre incident which resulted in the failing of a law student after she attempted to use a gadget deception to illegally cheat in her law exams.

The report description read as follows: "A law student complained about the penalty imposed for cheating in an examination. She had annotated a law statute book with invisible UV ink, creating 24 pages of unauthorised notes which she took into her examination. She was seen using the notes by other students and the invigilator, who retained the statute book as evidence.

"The student did not deny the offence but appealed on the basis of unfair penalty, extenuating circumstances and procedural error. The provider determined there were no grounds for appeal and confirmed the penalty (to fail her in all modules for the year). We decided the case was Not Justified as the provider had demonstrated that the penalty was in line with its own procedures and reasonable in the circumstances."

How a potential lawyer believed she was going to get away with such an obvious tactic is yet to be confirmed, although we have reason to believe that she must have thought the UV light was invisible - who shines a torch around in an exam and doesn't expect to get caught?

Unfortunately, the University and the student have not been revealed, so AllAboutLaw was not able to reach them for comment.

A spokesperson for Universities UK told the Huffington Post that cheating is taken “extremely seriously” and guilty students should expect to face “severe penalties”. “Academic misconduct is a breach of an institution’s disciplinary regulations and can result in students being expelled from the university,” they said.

“Universities have become more experienced in detecting and dealing with all forms of cheating. University support services are there to help vulnerable students struggling with anxiety and stress around examinations and coursework deadlines.”

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