Unique International College made misleading representations and engaged unconscionable conduct in recruiting students from vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, a Court has found.
The Federal Court of Australia found that the use of gifts including laptops and iPads was part of a system of conduct used to “supercharge the exploitation of the disadvantaged group that was being targeted”.
The Court said this wasn't a case of misappropriation of Commonwealth funds, nor was it about rorting by Unique of a Commonwealth scheme.
"The Applicants’ case was, from beginning to end, a case alleging the unconscientious exploitation and misleading of students," Justice Perram said in the published judgment. "It is quite possible for the rorting of a scheme to happen without exploitation of students. It is also equally possible for exploitation of students to occur in the absence of rorting."
Unique sold now scrapped-VET FEE-HELP diploma courses that cost between $10,000 to $25,000. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said Unique’s sales staff used tactics including door-to-door sales in vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in 2014 and 2015.
“The Court found that Unique’s marketing deliberately targeted people from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, including regional Aboriginal communities,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.
“Many people were not even aware that they were being enrolled by Unique and unwittingly signed up to significant debts. Unique misled people by stating that the course was free, when in fact they would incur a debt up to $25,000 per course under the VET FEE-HELP scheme,” Mr Sims said.
The ACCC and the Commonwealth acted against Unique in October 2015 following a joint investigation with NSW Fair Trading into the training colleges sector.
In the 2014-15 financial year, Unique enrolled over 3,600 students in their diploma courses and was paid approximately $57 million by the Commonwealth for those enrolments. Unique's revenue that year soared to $56,183,632 and its net profit after tax was $33.7 million.
The ACCC and the Department of Education are seeking orders for repayment of funds paid by the Commonwealth in course fees.
“Our focus is now on ensuring that the affected consumers will not remain in debt because of Unique’s exploitative behaviour,” said Mr Sims.
The matter is now listed for a hearing on penalties and other relief on a date to be determined.
