The individual denied overwhelming circumstantial evidence that she conspired with others to cheat
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More than a year after revelations of widespread cheating in life-insurance licensure exams broke out in BC, the province’s insurance regulator has revoked one individual’s license over similar concerns of dishonesty.
The Insurance Council of British Columbia (ICBC) has taken away the life and accident and sickness insurance license of Manjit Kaur Brar. In a report documenting a hearing dated May 7, 2018, the council cited allegations that Brar “had colluded with other applicants in writing three of her four Council Life Licence Qualifying Program (LLQP) examinations.”
Based on a review from the LLQP exams taken on February 8, 2017, an investigator hired by the ICBC had found that six candidates had used a combination of the same answers across certain combinations of the exams. “[A]ll six individuals were licensees with the same Agency as the Licensee before the Committee in this matter,” the report said.
The council found that Brar had used a common answer sequence on three of her four LLQP exams: Segregated Funds, Life Insurance, and Accident and Sickness Insurance, which she took between December 12 and December 22, 2016. The common answer sequences she used were the same as, or very close to, those used by many other licensees affiliated with the insurance agency.
Brar had scored 63.33% on her Segregated Funds exam, using the same answer sequence as at least 19 other candidates the ICBC tagged in its collusion analysis. She got 70% on the Life Insurance exam, with substantially similar answers as at least 21 other examinees. On the Accident and Sickness exam, she garnered 66.67%, with an answer sequence that was substantially the same as 12 other examinees.
“[T]he statistical probability of the Licensee’s answer sequences independently matching the answer sequence of another candidate was less than 1 in a billion,” the ICBC said, citing an analysis by the investigator.
In her testimony, Brar argued that she would not have attended the hearing, especially without legal representation, if she had actually cheated or colluded. Arguing that she is an intelligent person, she questioned how she could have passed the fourth LLQP exam if she had needed to cheat on the other three. She maintained that there was no evidence of her actually cheating, and she denied knowing how or why her answer sequences matched with those of other examinees.
When asked why she had not met with the investigator in the course of his inquiries, Brar replied that she did not cheat and therefore saw no reason to do so. She claimed that she started studying in 2015 and was at one point able to access sample questions, but not complete exams.
“When one combines the statistical evidence with the many other factors linking the Agency licensees to each other, it becomes clear that the Licensee’s matching answers were not the equivalent of, in her words, a lottery win,” the council said.
Brar’s licence has been cancelled for a period of four years ending on February 4, 2023, and she is to pay investigation and hearing costs. She is also required to complete an ethics course before reapplying for a license from the ICBC.
