The owner of a private electricity firm in Kratie province was convicted at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday for paying $70,000 owed to a senior police officer and “land businessman” with a cheque that bounced.

Sam Pheap, the owner of the Kratie Provincial Electricity Company, was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay the original amount he owed to deputy provincial police chief Teng Bunthon along with additional compensation.

According to Bunthon, Pheap and his wife came to see him in 2012 in Phnom Penh, asking to borrow $70,000 and promising to repay by March 24 last year. But Bunthon said that when the deadline came, the cheque bounced.

Pheap, who was arrested in November, said he would appeal. He admitted that he had signed the cheque but said it was just a symbolic measure of his commitment.