Fake charity will benefit another cause
School recovers donations taken from students in mufti- day scam
The principal of an Auckland high school whose students were scammed out of thousands of dollars by a student says it is in the process of having the money repaid.
The mufti- day fundraising scam, in which students donated about $ 2700 in gold coins to what turned out to be a fake charitable cause, resulted in the expulsion of one Year 12 student.
The school had been working to recover the money since at least early September.
“We’ve had some of the money back and expect the rest back at some point soon,” the school’s principal said this week. “When we get all of the money back we will make a decision on where it goes in terms of another charity.”
The Weekend Herald has chosen not to name the student, or the school, to protect his identity.
The principal said the school hoped to have the rest of the money returned by the end of the year, but declined to say how much had been recovered so far.
“When we do [ get the money back], my thinking is, I will talk to the charity council at school to come up with a worthy local cause between us.”
The student was co- operating with repaying the money and had since started at another school with the support of the college, he said.
In the scam, which happened at a mufti- day in August, the student claimed he was raising money for poor children he had met on a trip to Afghanistan.
In a speech to the school’s assembly he asked for help fundraising to help the children — but the money allegedly went into his own pocket.
The student also claimed to have met United States President Barack Obama and Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi during the trip to Afghanistan.
He was expelled several weeks later, when the school discovered the ruse.
Last month, one of the student’s former classmates described how the fundraising mufti- day had been promoted as a way to help people in wartorn Afghanistan.
“He said he had already been to Afghanistan and he had seen how things were. Poor living conditions, poverty,” the classmate said. “The idea was that the money would go to charity to help the families.”
It i s understood some students donated five times as much as the required gold coin donation, thinking their money was going to a good cause.
It is believed that several weeks after the assembly, speculation began about whether something was amiss, partly because of pictures the boy used in his presentation.