The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced former tycoon and Chea Sim adviser Tan Senghak to 18 months in prison and issued a five-million-riel ($1,250) fine in a breach of trust case involving a missing generator, said presiding judge Yeth Polin.

According to Polin, Senghak – who is also facing drug charges after being arrested in a meth raid on his villa – was charged after allegedly losing a $4,500 generator he had leased, which had been confiscated in another raid on a separate villa he had rented to a group of alleged Chinese criminals who engaged in a Voice over Internet Protocol scam.

During the raid, Polin said, the court had temporarily taken the generator but returned it. Months later, when it was time to return the generator to its owner, it had vanished.

Senghak said yesterday that he took issue with the decision and would take it “to the court of appeal soon”, adding that his family had already reimbursed the person who owned the generator.