In 2016, when Sydney based Australian Institute of Professional Education went into liquidation after federal government crackdown on the VET FEE-HELP scheme, thousands of 'students' were impacted.
The Federal Court has now found that AIPE breached the Australian Consumer Law when it told consumers their courses were free, despite the fact that consumers who enrolled would incur a debt of between $12,160 and around $20,000.
In a scathing ruling, the court said 'AIPE implemented a system of unconscionable conduct between January 2013 and December 2015'.
Among other things, the college offered consumers a “free” laptop as an inducement to enrol in it's courses, without explaining to consumers the VET FEE-HELP debt they would incur if they enrolled.
The court also found that AIPE paid substantial commissions to third party agents and recruiters to enrol students into their courses, many of whom went onto enrol vulnerable consumers who were unlikely to be able to complete their course.
Read the story in Punjabi
ਸਿਖਲਾਈ ਕਾਲਜ ਏ ਆਈ ਪੀ ਈ ਉੱਤੇ ਅਦਾਲਤ ਨੇ ਲਾਏ ਗੈਰ-ਜਿੰਮੇਵਾਰਾਨਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਗੁਮਰਾਹ ਕਰਨ ਦੇ ਦੋਸ਼
AIPE was run by Sydney radiologist Tej Dugal and real estate businessman Ajay Vanju, whilst Amjad Khanche was the CEO.
The Australian Competition and Consumer has welcomed the federal court ruling and offered guidance to affected students.
“AIPE misled vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers into enrolling in courses which left them with large debts,” ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.
“AIPE enrolled consumers in around 16,000 courses and obtained over $210 million in Commonwealth funding as a result of its misleading and unconscionable conduct.”
Since 1 January 2019, a VET FEE-HELP Student Redress Measures were introduced to help eligible students with large debts due to the inappropriate conduct of their VET provider.
As at 31 October 2019, the removal of inappropriate VET FEE-HELP debts of over $493 million for around 38,000 students has been approved by the Commonwealth.
Anyone affected is encouraged to contact the VET Student Loans Ombudsman (part of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman) for assessment.
Hear the story by clicking on the audio link above.
