A former printing company clerk has been jailed seven years by the District Court for misappropriating more than $11.6 million from her employer.

Idy Yick, 42, former clerk of Sang Yau Luen Printing Company, was found guilty of one count of fraud. She used her personal bank accounts to settle Sang Yau Luen's utilities expenses. For reimbursement, she would prepare cheques for the company's sole proprietor to sign.

From April 1, 1998, to November 30, 2004, she prepared 215 Sang Yau Luen cheques for over $11.6 million in total, purportedly to settle sundries expenses or make reimbursements to herself. The payee of those cheques was either left blank or made payable to the defendant.

As the proprietor could not read English, he signed the cheques after matching the amounts in figures with the respective supporting documents. All 215 cheques were deposited into the defendant's or her husband's bank accounts, or their joint accounts.

Out of the 215 cheques, 156 - amounting to over $7.9 million - were purportedly issued to settle the company's sundries expenses. However, the defendant altered and inflated the amounts of those cheques after the sole proprietor of Sang Yau Luen signed them.

Out of the remaining 59 cheques, 26 were recorded by the defendant as payment to various suppliers. But those suppliers did not receive the payments. As for the remaining 33 payments, she did not record them in the company ledger as genuine expenses.