Three ships engineering officers are stripped of qualifications

28 Jul 2006 12:45 PM

At a hearing today at the Central London Civil Justice Centre, the United Kingdom Certificates of Competency of Avilano Alves, Pervez Rafique Modak and Tahir Malik Mahmood (also known as Tahir Mahmood Malik) were cancelled

On 22/10/2002 an Applied Heat exam for engineers was being undertaken at a UK College. At the end of the exam the Invigilator was collecting papers when he noticed that a candidate had two exam workbooks on his desk. In accordance with exam rules both papers were collected in and passed on to an examiner for marking. On inspection by the marker, he discovered that the 'exam' paper had differing sets of handwriting on the inside and the front of the workbook. The second 'non-exam' paper had the candidate's handwriting inside and the front of the workbook and that it also contained the questions to a previous exam. The suspicions of the marker were passed on to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Exam papers submitted by the candidate were recalled. An investigation by the Enforcement Unit of the MCA was started. In essence, whenever the candidate had passed written exams previously the handwriting on the outside was different to that on the inside of the workbook. However when he submitted a workbook where the handwriting was the same on the inside and front of the workbook, the candidate failed. It was decided to nullify all the candidates' previous exam results and ban him from the UK examination system.

As a follow up to this matter the engineering papers for the previous five or so years were examined. Approximately 5,000 papers, firstly no similar trends to the case above were discovered. Secondly several possible suspects were identified.
Papers were then passed to a hand writing expert for further examination who identified three suspects. These persons were Avilano Alves, Pervez Rafique Modak and Tahir Malik Mahmood.

Following the investigation by the MCA Enforcement Unit into these three individuals, the Secretary of State decided to hold a Formal Inquiry under Section 61 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 into the fitness of these three individuals to hold a UK Certificate of Competency.

The hearing was held in the old Court No.1 at the Southampton Civic Centre on Monday 13th February 2006 and Tuesday 14th February 2006. The 'Appointed Person' (Adjudicator) was Mr Lionel Persey QC of Quadrant Chambers in London. He was assisted by an Assessor, Mr Mark Friswell. The MCA was represented by Ms Jackie Duff, Solicitor. Messrs. Alves, Modak and Mahmood failed to attend.

The hearing heard evidence from two hand writing experts, Mr Frits Cohen of Graph-O-Logica, London and Ms Karen Caramiello of the Forensic Science Service (FSS). They gave opinion which satisfied the hearing that Alves, Modak and Mahmood did in fact complete examination papers which were then passed off as another candidate's work.

In making his ruling at Central London Civil Justice Centre today, Mr Persey accepted that the behaviour of these three individuals was misconduct of the most serious kind. Mr Persey also went on to say that he considered that there can be no place in the UK Merchant Navy for those who are found knowingly to have participated in a dishonest abuse of the examination system. He therefore ordered the cancellation of the UK Certificates of Competency belonging to:

1. AVILANO ALVES from Goa, India
Date of Birth: 16/12/1968
Chief Engineer Certificate of Competency No. CoC0022976;

2. PERVEZ RAFIQUE MODAK from Mumbai, India
Date of Birth: 22/06/1968
Second Engineer Certificate of Competency No. CoC0027975; and

3. TAHIR MALIK MAHMOOD (also known as Tahir Mahmood Malik) from Chaklala, Pakistan but believed to be in the UK at present. Date of Birth: 02/08/1976
Second Engineer Certificate of Competency No. CoC0013136.

He further recommended that they should not be allowed to resit any examinations leading to a UK Certificate of Competency for 5 years. Captain Roger Towner, Chief Examiner at the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, stated:

"Since this matter first came to light the MCA has instigated several major changes to certification and examination procedures in order to prevent further fraudulent attempts to gain a UK Certificate of Competency. This matter should make it even clearer to those who assist in an attempt to defraud the UK certification system that they will be placing their own Certificate of Competency in jeopardy."

Press releases and further information about the Agency is available on the Web at www.mcga.gov.uk