Shahid Adnan was jailed for three years after police found over $3.29 million in his bank accounts from a massive online cheating scheme.

Trusting a degree means believing the person who got it did the actual work. When someone can buy an education, it cheapens the hard work of every honest student.

WHAT HAPPENED

An Amazon delivery driver in England is going to prison for running a massive cheating business. Shahid Adnan, 43, took exams and did coursework for students by pretending to be them online. He ran a company called Study Sharp Ltd while delivering packages on the side.

The scheme fell apart in February 2023. A student handed a USB drive to a university manager. Digital experts tracked the files back to Adnan, where they found spreadsheets full of student logins and deadlines.

Police soon looked at his bank accounts and found he was living far beyond his delivery driver wage. He had luxury cars, high-end home items, and over $3.29 million stashed away.

FACT BO

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"What the money/evidence shows"

• Adnan made at least $400,000 directly from doing student coursework.
• Investigators found $2 million in a Barclays bank account.
• His Lloyds bank accounts held another $1.14 million.
• He kept about $149,000 in a PayPal account.
• Police believe he did work for 124 students at schools across the globe.

THE BIGGER QUESTION

How did a delivery driver manage to bypass university security systems on such a scale? Many colleges moved to online testing to make things easier, but this case shows how easy it is to game the system. If one man can earn millions taking tests for others, we must ask how much we can trust online degrees.

THE OTHER SIDE

Adnan told police he only sat for one exam for a student and made $337. He claimed he did not know he needed permission from the school to log into their accounts.

This defense carries little weight because he eventually pleaded guilty to multiple charges after police found his spreadsheets and millions in cash.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW

Adnan is starting a three-year prison sentence. Liverpool John Moores University says it is looking closely at academic honesty.

For normal students, this means colleges will likely crack down on security, making online exams much harder to log into.

WHAT WE STILL DON'T KNOW

Which other universities had students who paid Adnan to take their tests?

• Will the 124 students who hired him lose their degrees or face criminal charges?
• Where did the rest of the $3.29 million in his accounts come from if he only made $400,000 from cheating?