Student's prank tweet pretending to be his lecturer goes viral

The student in Scotland shares the same name as his lecturer

The tweet, showing the student's trickery, was re-tweeted thousands of times (Twitter, Mark Mckenna @mckennamark6)

One student found there was fun to be had when he was mistaken for his lecturer.

Mark McKenna, a student at the University of West Scotland, shares his full name with a lecturer that teaches him and his classmate.

So when he got an email from his classmate excusing himself from their coaching science lecture, he spotted the potential for some leg-pulling.

And now the email exchange has gone viral on Twitter, with almost 7,500 retweets and more than 11,000 likes.

His unsuspecting classmate Gary Kavanagh wrote to him thinking he was their lecturer:

"Hi Mark, sorry I wasn't in today for the coaching science lecture, all of the trains were cancelled going to Hamilton West due to the weather."

Mark - the student, not the lecturer - saw the opportunity for comedy and pretended to refuse the apology.

"I don't care if the trains were cancelled, I expect you to be at every class even if the weather is terrible.

"Asda are doing great deals on tents at the moment, maybe you should buy one and camp outside the lecture hall for next time.

"Unauthorised absences aren't good enough."

He then revealed the exchange online, explaining to the Twittersphere: "When your lecturer has the same name as you and people email you thinking yer him."

Twitter reacted with delight at the deception.

The tweet has been re-tweeted thousands of times.