Two Chinese nationals studying in the UK, 26-year-old Li Liu and 25-year-old Wanqing Yu, have been convicted and sentenced for fraud after exploiting the UK train delay refund scheme for over £150,000.
The students lived together in a flat in Leeds, West Yorkshire, where they orchestrated the fraud.
Yu was on a one-year English-teaching course while Liu was enrolled on a computer-science-related course at the University of Leeds. Neither had previous convictions.
The pair manipulated the national rail delay-compensation scheme, commonly known as “Delay Repay”. They first claimed refunds for tickets they said they no longer wished to travel on, then waited until the same journeys were delayed and submitted a claim for compensation because of the delay. Depending on how long the train had been delayed, they would be able to get up to a full refund for a ticket they already had a refund on.
Through this scheme, they made over £140,000. Liu illegally acquired £141,031 while Yu acquired £15,712.
The scam ran from around 2021 until their arrest earlier this year. The pair admitted charges of conspiracy to defraud and possession of criminal property. Liu receiving 30 months in prison and Yu 17 weeks. Investigators are now seeking recovery of the stolen funds under Proceeds of Crime legislation.
They exploited rail services across the UK, targeting routes known to experience delays, as well as 16 fake identities to maximise profits. To try and hide the scam, they opened multiple bank accounts and even used a 20-SIM-card adapter to make the communications appear as though from different phones.
The fraud was first flagged by rail operator CrossCountry Trains and then investigated by British Transport Police. Investigators found that the Delay Repay scheme did not automatically check whether a passenger had already obtained a refund for the journey before awarding compensation, allowing the scam to be carried out.
At sentencing, Judge Howard Crowson described the scheme as “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.”
In mitigation, Liu’s lawyer said he would “carry the remorse and shame for the rest of his life” and highlighted “a much more positive side to his character than reflected by his offending”.
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