DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CHARTERED CERTIFIED ACCOUNTANTS

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1 DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CHARTERED CERTIFIED ACCOUNTANTS REASONS FOR DECISION In the matter of: Mr Tasveer Hossain Heard on: 5 February 2015 Location: ACCA Offices, 29 Lincolns Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3EE Committee: Mr Ian Ridd (Chairman), Ms Ruby Sukkersudha (Accountant) and Mrs Grahame Owen (Lay) Legal Adviser: Mr Andrew Granville Stafford Persons present and capacity: Ms Sarah Cawley-Wilkinson (ACCA Case presenter) and Mrs Bernice Ash (Committee Officer) Observers: None PRELIMINARY 1. The Committee convened to hear an allegation of misconduct against Mr Tasveer Hossain. The Committee had before it a bundle of papers (pages 1 to 95), an additional bundle (pages 96 to 98) and a bundle of service papers (pages 1 to 23). 2. Mr Hossain attended the hearing by telephone. ALLEGATION(S)/BRIEF BACKGROUND 3. Mr Hossain faced the following allegation: Allegation 1 a) Pursuant to bye-law 8(a)(i), Mr Hossain is guilty of misconduct in that, as part of his BSc in Applied Accounting, he placed an advert on the website in about January 2013 in an attempt to get another person to write his Research and Analysis Project intending to pass this off as his own work. 1

2 b) The above conduct was: i. Dishonest ii. Contrary to the Fundamental Principle of Integrity 4. Mr Hossain has been an ACCA registered student since At the relevant time he was studying for a BSc in Applied Accounting at Oxford Brookes University ( OBU ). The University s regulations, which are available to students online, include the following: 2.2 Academic misconduct: Students shall not cheat (ie obtain, or attempt to obtain, an unfair academic advantage) in any assessment... In particular they shall not commit collusion, plagiarism, falsification, duplication, submit work or others as their own or allow another person to undertake an assignment for them... A13.13 Cheating A3.13 vi Custom Writing Services... The University may consider any request placed with any form of custom writing service to be a form of cheating, whatever use is then made of the material produced In January 2013, Mr Hossain was required as part of his course to write a Research and Analysis Project ( RAP ). Between 13 and 16 January 2013 he sent a number of s to ACCA and OBU requesting information about the requirements of a RAP. He was referred to an information pack available on 6. The Freelancer website describes itself as an outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace. It offers users the opportunity of hiring a freelancer to do contract work through the website in return for payment. 7. On or about 15 February 2013 OBU became aware that Mr Hossain had placed a tender on Freelancer to write a RAP for him. The tender set out the following requirements: An analysis and evaluation of the business and financial performance of an organisation over a three year period.... 2

3 Avg Bid (USD) $140 Project Budget (USD) $30-$150 Project Description: For detail of the project you should visit: you should ensure you are using the most current financial statements available. The main focus of your project research must be an analysis / evaluation of the project topic area issues in the context of your chosen organisation There are two crucial aspects to ensure success in this project: 1) Your RAP must be focused on one organisation 2) The analysis must be a business analysis not just a financial analysis. You should combine the analysis / evaluation requirement of the RAP with the project topic area and with your chosen organisation to produce your Research and Analysis Project Title. Project posted by: tasveerhossain 8. On 5 March 2013 OBU wrote to Mr Hossain inviting him to respond to the allegation that he had sought to commission someone to write a RAP on his behalf. Mr Hossain replied by on 11 March 2013: I posted on freelancer to get an idea on how to do RAP and had no intention to cheat. As you can see I deleted the project and immediately close my account on freelancer. I am now doing the project myself. 9. In a further to OBU on 12 March 2013 Mr Hossain wrote: I just posted the project to get an idea how to do a research project, as I have never done such project before. But I didn t find any eligible person to give an idea on this matter. Moreover I didn t even create a milestone to make payment freelancer and never received project from 3

4 any freelancer... When I found an from OBU about this concern then I immediately closed my project. My intention was not to cheat but to get an idea... If I could have obtained the project then I would go through the project to learn how to organize and write the report and then prepare my project by myself without copying others. Since I didn t receive any project from freelancers, my current RAP would not be influenced by others. 10. On 26 October 2013, in response to an from ACCA, Mr Hossain wrote: The mistake done by me was completely unintentional. I just posted the project to get an idea how to do a research project, as I have never done such project before... Respected sir, in my entire life of education I never cheated or even try to cheat. If you go through my past results then you will find that I have passed all the subjects from F1 to F9 in first time. I was confused about the preparation of RAP and therefore sent a number of mails to ACCA about how to select topics and all about RAP in January I know ACCA is very serious about ethics but I want to say that a complete untentional mistake was done by me as I didnt go through the regulations of OBU. I ensure you that I will learn from this mistake and will do nothing in future that may question my profession as an accountant. 11. In a further to ACCA dated 28 January 2015 he said: I was finding difficulty understanding the project as I passed all the attempted subjects of ACCA by studying alone at my home without taking any help from any institution and there were no one to clear the concept of writing the project. That s why I send a number of mails to Oxford Brookes University. Even after their reply when it was not clear to me about how I should write the project I opened a freelancer account as my sister (basically a science background) told me to do so... I didn t know this type of activity would be against University rules as I didn t go through that part. If I knew then I would have never done such thing in my life which are against the rules of University and ACCA. 4

5 However, I posted a number of projects in freelancing where the descriptions were nothing but just a copy and paste of RAP guide instructions. I didn t create any milestone (payment) for the project but just gave the bid price. Because without giving bid price no one would give or show me their hints work (e.g. a shot of content page of project) as I thought with the help of this I could make my own. DECISION ON FACTS/ALLEGATION(S) AND REASONS 12. The Committee considered the documents before it, in particular what had been said in writing by Mr Hossain, the evidence of Mr Hossain given by telephone, the submission of Ms Cawley-Wilkinson on behalf of ACCA and the advice of the Legal Adviser. The Committee bore in mind that the burden of proving an allegation rests on ACCA and the standard to be applied is proof on the balance of probabilities. 13. Mr Hossain made three points in his closing submissions to the Committee. First, that he had tried to get help as to the requirements of the RAP from ACCA without success. It was then his sister who suggested posting on the Freelancer website. Second, that his intention was not to get someone to write a full RAP for him but just to get an idea of the contents of such a project. Third, that he did not know this was against OBU s students regulations. He told the Committee he had not seen these regulations prior to posting on the freelancer website: indeed, Ms Cawley-Wilkinson accepted on behalf of ACCA that though the regulations were available to him there was no evidence that they had been brought specifically to his attention. 14. Ms Cawley-Wilkinson submitted it was not credible to suggest he posted a request for someone to write the entire project for him just to get an idea of its structure. The fact that he had withdrawn the posting when the University found out about it was consistent with Mr Hossain appreciating that his actions were dishonest. Allegation 1(a): Misconduct 15. The Committee first considered whether ACCA had established that the placing of the advert on Freelancer was an attempt to get another person to write a RAP intending to pass it off as his own. 5

6 16. The Committee felt it was significant that Mr Hossain had gone to some trouble to post a request for someone to write a detailed project precisely of the nature required by his course. The Committee had no doubt that if he had received a helpful response he would have made use of it. The only reasonable inference is that he hoped he would get a response he could pass off as his own. 17. There were no doubt other quite legitimate sources Mr Hossain could access in order to get help with the project. The Committee rejected his assertion that this was done merely to get an idea of the contents of the project. Though Mr Hossain may have not read the University s regulations regarding cheating, the Committee was in no doubt that he would have realised that using a custom writing service was not allowed by the University. 18. Therefore the Committee was satisfied not only that that Mr Hossain motivation was to pass someone else s work as his own, but also that the same amounts to attempting to cheat in relation to a course of professional study. That in the Committee s view clearly amounts to misconduct and therefore allegation 1(a) is proved. Allegation 1(b)(i): Dishonesty 19. In assessing whether Mr Hossain s actions were dishonest, the Committee considered the subjective and objective test as set out in Twinsectra Ltd v Yardley. The Committee considered that any reasonable and honest accountant or accountancy student would regard attempting to cheat in a professional exam as dishonest. The Committee also had no doubt that Mr Hossain must have realised that by trying to cheat he was acting dishonestly. Having rejected Mr Hossain s claim that he was only trying to get an idea of how to structure the project, the only inference it could draw was that he realised that he was not acting honestly. 20. Therefore allegation 1(b)(i) is proved. Allegation 1(b)(ii): Breach of fundamental principle of integrity 21. The fundamental principle of integrity requires a student to act in a manner which is honest and straightforward. In light of R(May) v CIMA the 6

7 Committee accepted that this principle is broadly similar with a requirement to act honestly. Therefore, in light of its finding in respect of allegation 1(b)(i) and for the same reasons the Committee was satisfied that allegation 1(b)(ii) was proved. SANCTION AND REASONS 22. The Committee considered what sanction, if any, to impose taking in to account its findings on the allegation, the submissions of Mr Hossain in mitigation, ACCA s Guidance for Disciplinary Sanctions (2013) and the principle of proportionality. 23. The Committee accepted that Mr Hossain has a previous unblemished record and this was an isolated incident. Nonetheless, the public would doubtless take a serious view of a student trying to cheat in his studies for an accountancy qualification and, although the Committee was mindful of its duty not to impose a sanction which is any more restrictive than necessary, that fact alone clearly merits a sanction at the higher end of the scale. 24. The Committee has found that this was dishonest conduct which was intentional. Mr Hossain clearly thought he could get away with it and, had he not been found out by chance, he would have done. Having regard to the seriousness of this offence and the finding of dishonesty, and in the absence of any mitigation which goes to the commission of the offence, the Committee decided the only appropriate sanction was to remove Mr Hossain from the student register. 25. The Committee did not consider it was necessary to make an order under Reg 12(3)(a) of the Complaints and Disciplinary Regulations restricting Mr Hossain s ability to re-apply for registration. COSTS 26. ACCA applied for costs in the sum of 3, The Committee heard from Mr Hossain about his income, outgoings and personal circumstances. The Committee considered that in light of his 7

8 limited means it would not be reasonable to order him to pay the full amount claimed. The Committee determined that it was reasonable to require Mr Hossain to pay 1,500 towards ACCA s costs and so ordered. EFFECTIVE DATE OF ORDER 28. The order will come in to effect from the date of expiry of the appeal period, namely after 21 days from service of this written statement of the Committee s reasons for its decision, unless Mr Hossain gives notice of appeal in accordance with the Appeal Regulations prior to that. PUBLICITY 29. ACCA s regulations require ACCA to publish the Committee s findings and orders by way of a news release as soon as practicable. The Committee has discretion as to which publications the news release should be sent and discretion in exceptional circumstances to direct that the relevant person is not named. Though Mr Hossain submitted that he ought not to be named, the Committee was satisfied that there were no exceptional circumstances in this case. The Committee ordered that a news release be issued to ACCA s website and to the local press referring to Mr Hossain by name. Mr Ian Ridd Chairman 5 February