Unqualified engineer fined for ethics breach

A student engineer who misrepresented her qualifications has been sentenced on dozens of fraud charges.

Prajna Singh was found guilty in the Auckland District Court on 38 charges of dishonestly using a document. She was sentenced in April to six months of community detention, 80 hours’ of community service and to pay $25,000 in reparation.

Now Singh has also been fined $5000 by the Engineering NZ disciplinary committee for breaching her obligations under the industry’s code of ethics. The committee said the student misrepresented herself as a chartered professional engineer (CPEng) and signed off seismic assessments and producer statements. The misrepresentation included her using someone else’s CPEng registration number without their knowledge.

‘‘Ms Singh’s representations, on at least 32 occasions, that she held that qualification when she did not is alarming and has the very real potential to damage the trust the public places in the CPEng title,’’ the committee said. While there were no legal restrictions on who could call themselves an engineer, a CPEng was a protected title that was given after competency assessments and, usually, at least seven years of experience after graduation. Singh did not have an engineering degree when making the misrepresentations, although she had attended several years of university courses.

This was the first time the committee had awarded the maximum fine against an engineer. ‘‘We are unable to think of any conduct which better justifies the maximum penalty than dishonestly holding oneself out to be a qualified engineer and a CPEng registered engineer.’’

This reporter’s role is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ On Air.