Probe into 'fake' LPC certificates

The College of Law has called in the police and launched an internal investigation over allegations that fake legal practice course (LPC) certificates are being sold out of a strip club in the east end of London.

The Sunday Mirror alleged that for 1,500, students get a blank LPC certificate to fill in, which has been stolen from the College of Law's London branch.

The man operating the scam also promises to alter the college's computers - with the help of an insider - so the student is recorded as having passed the LPC, rather than failed.

All training contracts are registered at the Law Society, which as a matter of course checks with providers that trainees have passed the LPC.

Professor Nigel Savage, the college's chief executive, stressed that the certificates appeared to be complete fabrications as the signatories are not those used on real certificates.

'In an era when it is very easy to download logos from the Internet, someone has passed off a fake certificate as a genuine one,' he said, adding that the fact the certificates were clear fakes indicated that the perpetrators of the scam did not have access to the college's computer systems.

'In any event, given our security systems we do not consider that this would be possible.

We cannot, however, afford to be complacent and our investigations will examine that process.'

He added that the college maintains a complete audit trail of any changes to students' results.

The college has notified the police.

'We will do everything possible to assist them with their enquiries,' Professor Savage said.

Neil Rose