Couples on trial - suspected of cheating CSN on millions

A woman and her honored husband must have applied for tuition with the Central Student Aid Board for over three years with false documents and deceived the authority that they were studying at a university in Scotland, even though none of them did during that time.

Studied a semester

The police investigation shows that the woman must have moved to Scotland to study at the university during the spring term 2010. She was then granted study funding, but did not complete the education. After that, the then couple must have applied for study funding for several years. When the scam was noticed, the couple had received over SEK 500,000 each from CSN.

Prior to the spring term of 2014, one of the Central Student Aid Committee's attorneys noted that the woman's signature on a study declaration, which one must fill in to receive new study funding, looked strange.

- Then we started checking all her information against the university. It was then revealed that she had not been there for three or four years, says Klas Elfving, CSN press secretary.

In connection with this, CSN discovered that her then husband had also applied for and received study funding, in the same way as the suspected woman.

Submitted false ratings

According to the indictment, the crime is serious because they are both suspected of having produced and submitted false results compilations, as well as submitted false certificates from the University of Scotland. According to the preliminary investigation, they have also applied for additional cost loans from CSN several times.

In one of the applications for additional cost loans, one of the suspects writes: “ We have the final exams in early April and if that sum of 1820 pounds does not come in until April, I must not do the exams. Plus I'm looking for travel money to come home in early April after the final exams . "

During the trial this week, a testimony was held with an employee of the university who testified that even the grades that the woman submitted already after her studies at the university in 2010 must have been false.

According to the university, the woman had not passed the courses that were really required, but in the grades submitted to the Central Student Aid Board she had been approved in all the courses. Had the correct grades been submitted, the woman would not have been granted a student loan, according to CSN.

In the police's preliminary investigation, it appears from the university that the man has never been enrolled at the university. It is also clear that the economy of the suspects must have been tough both during their years in Sweden and in Scotland.

The man and woman are charged with gross misconduct. They both blame each other and deny the crime. The penalty for the defendants appears when the verdict comes in mid-March.