Hong Kong student spared jail for ‘foolishly' faking exam results via beauty app Meitu
A Hong Kong student has been spared prison time over her attempt to secure a university placement with bogus entrance exam results edited by Chinese beauty filter app Meitu, with the presiding magistrate accepting the crime was a lapse in judgment.
Ng Tsz-ying, 22, was sentenced to a 12-month probation order at Fanling Court on Wednesday for submitting a fake copy of her certificate in the Diploma of Secondary Education examination to the Education University of Hong Kong last year.
Last month, the defendant
pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain services by deception and admitted using Meitu's editing function to make an image of the document appear as if she had attained Level 3 in English, whereas she had only got Level 2.
Ng secured an offer for the university's English language studies bachelor's degree programme after passing an online interview in July 2024.
Her deceit came to light after the institution cross-checked her reported results against the official transcript from the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.
Acting Principal Magistrate Veronica Heung Shuk-han highlighted the gravity of the offence, but noted the defendant was still relatively young and had reflected on her mistake during the two weeks she was remanded in custody pending the sentence.
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