A former sales manager of a computer hardware firm was jailed for 20 months at the District Court today (Tuesday) for offences ranging from offering various computer hardware equipment in exchange for purchase orders, false accounting, to conspiracy to de fraud his employer.

A co-defendant, a former assistant services manager of a company which bought from the computer hardware firm, also received a jail sentence of 12 months for accepting six items of computer equipment worth $110,000, including a scanner, a printer, a proje ctor and a CD writer, and other similar offences.

Chan Ka-po, 32, of Expert System Company Limited (ESCL), and Yeung Hok-bun, 38, of Gap International Sourcing Limited (Gap), were yesterday convicted of a total of 20 charges.

Judge Saunders said immediate jail sentences were imposed since the offences committed by the defendants were serious and constituted a breach of trust.

The court heard that as a sales manager, Chan was not allowed to receive direct commissions from any individual sales that he procured or assisted in procuring. But he was entitled to have a commission based on the total sales generated by his team.

However, Chan instructed each of six salespersons in his team to return 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the commissions to him.

Chan had also supplied Yeung with computer equipment as an inducement for Yeung to place orders with ESCL on behalf of Gap.

The items of computer equipment were found at Yeung's home after his arrest.

Yeung admitted under caution that he accepted the computer equipment from Chan, and in return placed purchase orders with him.

Also found at Yeung's home were a hard disk, a 17-inch monitor and a Pentium II Processor. Yeung had obtained these items by creating misleading documents which caused Gap to unknowingly pay for them.

The offences took place between December 10, 1996 and October 31, 1998.

The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Alex Lee, assisted by ICAC officer Michael Chan.