2 China students in UK claim S$242,000 in train refunds, jailed

Two Chinese nationals living in the UK were jailed for exploiting a loophole in its train system to get refunds.

The Daily Mail reported that Liu Li, 26, and Yu Wanqing, 25, claimed £140,000 (S$242,253) in total.

They were jailed for 30 months and 17 weeks respectively.

Modus operandi

The pair were living together at their student flat in Leeds, West Yorkshire when they discovered the loophole, according to radio network LBC.

Liu had started a one-year course at Leeds University in 2024 and previously applied for an advanced computer science course at Birmingham University.

Yu was on a one-year teaching course at the same university.

They managed to exploited a loophole in the train system.

This is because passengers can claim compensation when a train arrives late, according to the national Delay Repay scheme.

The pair discovered that there were no automatic cross-checks to find out whether a customer already received a refund for their ticket.

They would first claim refunds for train tickets by pretending they no longer wanted to travel.

Leeds Crown Court heard that they would then keep the extra cash by applying for Delay Repay compensation on the same journeys if the trains were late.

Elaborate scam

The pair had multiple bank accounts, the court heard.

They also created 16 fictitious people and used a 20-SIM card adapter in a single phone to help conceal their fraud.

They researched services all across the country which were often late so as to buy tickets in advance.

When the trains arrived late, the pair would apply through the national scheme for compensation though they had already claimed a refund for the tickets.

Scam discovered

Their scam was first discovered by CrossCountry Trains.

However, several other companies were also affected.

It turned out that the scam had been in operation since 2021.

When British Transport Police arrested them, Liu was found to have illegally acquired £141,031 (S$244,037).

Yu acquired £15,712 (S$27,187).

The pair were both held on remand since their arrest.

They also admitted charges of conspiracy to defraud and possession of criminal property.

Judge remarks

The pair gave no-comment interviews after being arrested.

Judge Howard Crowson told them: "You identified a weakness in the system, and between you, you abused that weakness.

"There was some sophistication, you created false identities and created a large number of bank accounts in order to conceal that you were behind the fraud."

Top photos via boniu123cc/Instagram