A former agent of a Guangzhou newspaper group has been jailed for 38 months by the District Court for embezzling $5 million from the group.

Chan Kam-hong, 46, formerly engaged by Guangzhou Daily Group to deal with accounting matters in Hong Kong, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud.

Deputy Judge Frankie Yiu said a custodial sentence was imposed because the case involved a serious breach of trust and a substantial amount of funds was embezzled.

Chan was entrusted by the group to look after its bank accounts in Hong Kong and to report their financial situation to the group.

Between December 2002 and January this year, Chan had forged the signatures of authorised signatories on a total of 54 cheques issued from the bank accounts, and misappropriated the funds.

Chan also altered the entries on the photocopies of the bank passbooks, which were submitted to the group's accounts department each month.