In addition, he stole 280,000 Hong Kong dollars when he took the wages for a bogus employee he claimed to have employed.

Prosecutor Samantha Chiu said Lai was the only person responsible at his firm, Forever Profits Development, for buying livestock, arranging delivery of the animals to the slaughterhouse and delivering meat to supermarkets.

The deception was uncovered when the firm's accountant discovered large discrepancies between total turnover and the profits made as well as the number of pigs that were purchased and the amount of meat received by butchers.