The High Court has given a suspended prison sentence to a man who was exposed by The Guardian for selling forged degrees online. Peter Leon Quinn had violated a previous injunction, leading to Universities UK filing a contempt of court action. Last July, a reporter from the publication, Audrey Gillan, obtained a realistic medical degree from Oxford University, a bachelor of arts from the University of Strathclyde and a full set of GCSEs with all A-grade passes in someone else’s name through a website that Quinn was operating.

The court ruling was warmly welcomed by Universities UK, which described the production of fake certificates as a highly significant matter affecting its members. The court decision would send a stern message to other criminals, according to Diana Warwick, UUK’s CEO. She added that it was important to safeguard genuine graduates, as well as members of the public, to ensure that documents apparently sent by UK universities genuinely reflected the achievements of their respective graduates.

In February 2000, the universities commenced legal action in the High Court against Quinn, who supplied and sold false degree certificates. Quinn was served with an injunction by the court that stopped him from publishing or supplying any document that represented a degree certificate from the claimants – British universities – or that breached the rights of the universities in the degree or diploma certificates.

Regardless of the High Court injunction, Quinn continued to produce and sell fake documents, as The Guardian established. The universities subsequently applied for contempt of court against Quinn, who confessed to "selling [degrees] or creating and supplying them." The court determined that Quinn had breached the injunction and gave him a 12-month imprisonment sentence, conditionally suspended for two years.

Diana Warwick, CEO for Universities UK, expressed satisfaction with the conclusion of the Quinn case. Phony credentials pose serious dangers to the public, as she noted, and are unacceptable. She added that, thanks to their efforts in this situation, an individual who has been supplying fake diplomas has received a substantial suspended custodial sentence for violating a court order. The universities will investigate any other cases that arise, and this result must serve as a cautionary lesson to any potential violators.