A man and two women have been jailed for false accounting involving $29.8 million.

Convicted by the High Court, the 49-year-old man was today sentenced to six years, while the 41-year-old woman was jailed for four-and-a-half years and the 32-year-old for four years.

The court heard that from December 1997 to February 1998, the man applied to a local bank for four letters of credit amounting to $29.8 million in favour of three companies under his control and one of his creditors in the purchase of dutiable liquor.

The women issued related documents like invoices and cargo receipts purporting they had delivered the liquor to him. The bank then paid the money to the four companies, but he did not repay the bank and was adjudged bankrupt in November 1999.

Police launched an investigation in September 2000 after receiving a complaint from one of the creditors. Officers found proceeds of the four letters of credit were channelled to the man. The trio were then charged on June 3, 2002 and were convicted of three counts of false accounting at the High Court on June 11.