Tutor Jailed For 14 Months For Leaking DSE Questions

A magistrate on Monday criticised a former celebrity tutor for undermining the fairness of the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams as she sentenced him to 14 months behind bars for leaking test paper questions in 2016 and 2017.

A lawyer for Wesley Siao told Tuen Mun Magistrates' Court that his client had only wanted to expose the questions early as a "gimmick" to attract more students, rather than to help them cheat, and he had never imagined there would be a "perception of unfairness".

But magistrate Kelly Shui said Siao's action had damaged the reputations of the key university entrance exams and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA), and she questioned whether the defendant was so naive as to think his behaviour wouldn't undermine the system.

Shui also criticised him for getting carried away with his reputation as a star tutor, and said he used this to solicit more business, also ruining the reputations of his friends in the process.

She said that she needed to hand down a deterrent sentence to send out a message to society that leaking exam questions is not acceptable.

Siao is a former Chinese language instructor at Modern Education which, along with two oral examiners from the HKEAA, was convicted of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

One of Siao's co-defendants was given eights months in prison, and the other was given a five-month suspended sentence. They had sent confidential questions and other key information about the DSE exams to Siao.

Siao’s wife was also accused of sending exam questions to her husband when she went to the bathroom in the middle of a test she was invigilating, but she was cleared of misconduct in public office.