Graduate, 31, said he was heading to Oxford but spent a third of the cash on his girlfriend before falling into debt

For traditionally minded Chinese parents, keen to encourage their son's ambitions, spending 6m hard-earned yuan £595,000 on prestigious postgraduate studies at Oxford University must have seemed a sound investment.But six years later they learned that the young man had never left China instead living in Beijing and blowing a third of the money on his girlfriend, Chinese media reported. She dumped him when his cash ran out.

It is unclear how the Dalian University graduate, who has not been named, managed to convince his parents that he was in the UK for all that time, or how he persuaded them it was costing him 1m yuan a year.The 31-year-old, from Jiangsu province, appears to have planned to study at a foreign university. According to the Beijing Morning Post, he had spent some of the money on agencies that promised to find him a place abroad and had given more to people who claimed they could help him through their personal connections.

When his parents ran out of money to fund him, he borrowed 400,000 yuan more from loan sharks, but could not pay it back.He was finally forced to confess to his parents after saying he would kill himself over his unpaid debts. They called police and firefighters to stop him.His parents said they ran a small silk-making factory and had struggled to make the money they sent to their son.They were furious on learning the truth, but forgave him because they believed he too had suffered a blow and because of their fears he might attempt suicide.