The Full Federal Court has cleared a Sydney private college of unconscionable conduct in enrolling students into diploma courses via the now-scrapped VET FEE-HELP scheme.
The court on Wednesday found Unique International College did not engage in a system of unconscionable conduct in enrolling vulnerable consumers into diploma courses, allowing the appeal against the June 2017 order of the Federal Court.
“I am very happy that justice has prevailed today,” Amarjit Khela, the owner of Unique International College told SBS Punjabi.
Last year Federal Court found the college had engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct in New South Wales and targeted disadvantaged consumers with offers of free laptops and providing financial incentives to its sales representatives.
Unique appealed against this order.
The Full Federal court said there was insufficient evidence to support the findings of the trial court. It also dismissed a cross-appeal filed by the ACCC against Unique.
After Wednesday’s court order, ACCC Chair Rod Smith said in a statement that the consumer watchdog took Unique to court because they believed it “deliberately targeted” vulnerable groups and that only 2.4 per cent of people who signed up and commenced courses between 1 July 2014 and 30th December 2014 completed their courses.
Amarjit Khela (left), owner of Unique International College outside the court. Source: Supplied
Mr Khela said this Mr Smith’s figure of 2.4 per cent was “factually incorrect”.
“I don’t agree with this. Our completion rates are much higher than this,” he said.
Unique did not challenge the trial judge’s findings that it engaged in misleading and deceptive and unconscionable conduct in relation to five consumers who gave evidence in the trial. The Court had found that Unique represented to these consumers that their courses were free, when in fact they were incurring a debt of up to $25,000 per course under the VET FEE-HELP scheme.
The case will now revert to the Federal Court to determine relief. The ACCC says it is seeking redress for the five affected consumers by cancelling their enrolments and debts, and the repayment of the funds paid to Unique by the Commonwealth.
“The ACCC went to the court alleging unconscionable conduct with regard to over 3,000 students. We did not challenge the trial court’s findings on these five cases and we accepted the decision,” Mr Khela said.
He said he and family were deliberately defamed while the court proceedings were on.
Unique International College Source: Supplied
“I have never done anything that’s against the law, neither when I was a journalist, nor in my business.
“But we have been defamed while the legal proceedings were on in the courts and we had decided not to speak to the media. But some people ran a deliberate campaign in the media to defame me and my family,” he said.
“But now is the time to seek justice for all that through the courts.”
The ACCC commenced legal action against Mr Khela’s college in October 2015 following a joint investigation by NSW Fair Trading. The consumer watchdog was hoping to recoup $57 million paid to the college in Commonwealth funding under the VET-FEE HELP scheme.
