A printing company employer and a foreign domestic helper have been jailed for 12 months for false accounting.

The case involved ex-gratia payments under an application to the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund.

The offences were detected when the Wage Security Unit of the Labour Department investigated an application from a domestic helper for ex-gratia payments from the fund.

The helper claimed wages, wages in lieu of notice and severance payments amounting to $64,892, despite the fact that he had been a messenger of the printing company since 1993.

The Police Commercial Crime Bureau investigated the case and made the arrests.

The employer was convicted of false accounting and aiding and abetting the breach of conditions of stay, and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

The helper was convicted for breaching conditions of stay and false accounting, and was also sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

Separately, the manager of the printing company was convicted of aiding and abetting the breach of condition of stay and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

Deputy Commissioner for Labour Chor Chan Chui-yuk welcomed the judgment, stressing that stringent vetting procedures were in place to guard against attempts to abuse the fund.

The maximum penalty for false accounting under the law is imprisonment for 10 years and the maximum penalty for providing false information in applying to the fund is a fine of $50,000 and three months' imprisonment.

At the end of August, the balance of the fund stood at $36.5 million. There is no need at present to draw on the $695 million bridging loan provided by the Government.