Imposter who did not study at the uni snuck into LSE graduation in attempt to fake degree

A female imposter pretended to be a student at the London School of Economics (LSE) and snuck into its graduation ceremony in a seeming attempt to fake her degree, The Tab can reveal.

On the last day of graduations, Friday 21st July, the unidentified individual successfully bypassed the initial security checks at the Peacock Theatre before being exposed.

The imposter bought a graduation gown from Ede & Ravenscroft – the same type that LSE students are asked to rent from – to blend in with the students. In addition, she forged graduation tickets for herself and her mother in order to gain access to the theatre.

Sarah*, a final-year LSE student involved in the organisation of the event, exclusively told The Tab London: “The girl had made a perfect replica of the graduation ticket with just a few faults, like the type of paper being slightly off and the ticket colour being slightly different from usual.”

Soon after the girl entered the theatre, LSE staff realised that she had no seat assigned to her and that her name was not on the attendance list.

Staff sought to identify her by looking up her name on the University of London database, where it was revealed that she was actually a summer school student and not a student at LSE at all. 

Upon being questioned by the security team, she reportedly ran out of the theatre and left her mother inside. 

According to Sarah, LSE staff pulled her mother aside and explained that her tickets were fake. Security asked the mother to call her daughter and the girl returned to the theatre where she admitted the truth. 

“The imposter confessed to not being an LSE student and to having faked the whole thing,” Sarah added. 

While Sarah told The London Tab that staff were unsure whether her mother always knew of the deception, they did speculate whether the girl “had been faking her LSE degree to her family for the past three years”.

An LSE spokesperson provided the following statement: “We are aware of an incident where a person who was not an invited LSE graduate attempted to gain entry to a graduation ceremony last week. When this was noticed by staff, through standard ticket checking processes, they were turned away.”

*Names have been changed to preserve anonymity.

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Featured images via Google Maps and Christian Lendl on Unsplash.