Chevening Scholarship - Avoiding return to home country for 2 years

I know this is often asked but I have further questions that I haven't seen covered anywhere.
Namely, has anyone stayed in the UK in breach of Chevening's conditions to return home for 2 years, and accepted to pay back their tens of thousands in fees? If so, did you have to pay back all your fees, what process did Chevening put in place to do this, how much did you pay back in total and over what time-frame, were there other costs or repercussions to your decision, did you get to stay in the UK, and how is life now?

I'm a Brit and my gf is from abroad, she met me here about 6 months ago while studying. She has a Chevening scholarship 2021/2022.
The course has now finished and she's due to go home soon.

She wants to stay with me in the UK. The long-term plan would be settled status, and short-term: either a Graduate Visa or Skilled Work Visa to work here.

But Chevening Ts & Cs state that "You must return home for a period of at least two years following the completion of your scholarship. The Secretariat is unable to provide any letter of support which might be required to enable a Scholar to stay on to work or study in the UK."

Reading about Graduate Visas, the gov.uk site indeed states that "Depending on your circumstances, you might be asked to provide: a letter from your scholarship or sponsorship provider approving your application, if they paid for your course fees or living costs in the last 12 months"

Chevening Ts and Cs say they will not provide that letter, meaning no Graduate Visa

But for the Skilled Worker Visa, no such requirement exists under the Documents you'll need to Apply section.

But Chevening is part of the UK Government so Visas and Immigration will likely inform Chevening of any visa application she submits. Not that we intend to try and sneak past them anyway.

Chevening state that "If you do not remain resident in your home country for two years following completion of your Scholarship, this will be treated as a breach of a scholarship condition and you will be liable to pay back all monies paid to you during the course of your scholarship."

At the end of the conditions under "What happens if I breach a condition?" They say the same and add that "You may be liable to pay a penalty. Where you are required to pay a penalty fee and are in receipt of a stipend, this will be automatically deducted. If you are not in receipt of a stipend you will be given one month to make the appropriate payment. Any reference to withholding of allowances may include any or all of the allowances to which you may be entitled."

We plan to come clean with Chevening with our intention to stay and arrange a deal to pay back the scholarship funds. She will hopefully then secure a job and begin the Skilled Worker visa application before she is sent home; if she runs out of time hen she will keep applying from her home country and return to me.

We need advice on that step though: Over how many years can we expect to back this back? Will we sit and meet to hash this out, or will they take her to court? Will they leverage penalties for her doing this and if so, what are they? They have no answers to these questions in their Ts and Cs, which is why I'm asking here.

After tuition fees of around 20k, a stipend of 1100 a month for 12 months, flights, etc, we estimate she would need to repay around £33,000

Obviously getting into a committed relationship while on such a course was ill-advised but life happens. We're not interested in splitting up. And her returning home and waiting out the 2 years is also a last resort: her home is in another continent and her passport is not that strong: she needs a Schengen visa to visit Europe and a travel visa for the UK. Realistically we'd be see each other for 4 weeks or less for each of those 2 years.

Morally we see the issue with going against Chevening like this: when she signed her acceptance (and these conditions), she was in another relationship and intended to abide by the rules, but that relationship ended soon after.

We have heard rumours of other who have successfully stayed in the UK to study PHDs after Chevening sponsorship (we have not been able to contact them), so we believe what we are trying to achieve is possible. Asusming she gets a job offer.

Her home country is not at war or anything so we doubt Chevening would excuse us, and we appreciate any exemptions given to others are not something they would make public for fear of others expectin the same treatment. Nor are we hoping they waive the fees, morally, but any advice from anyone who has been through this situation would be much appreciated.

Lastly, let this summarise why a Chevening scholar cannot really just decide to remain in the UK and ignore the "return for 2 years requirement": as above, they really do mean it.

Thanks.