The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced a businesswoman to two years in prison after she was sued by a former business partner for trying to repay a $200,000 debt with a bounced check in 2010.

Hong Sorphea, 53, the owner of a beauty salon in Boeung Tompun, had borrowed the money from her partner Meng Seng Khim the previous year.

Judge E Thavreak said that Sorphea was charged by the municipal court’s prosecutor with “issuing a check without money in her bank account”.

Along with two years behind bars, the court ordered Sorphea to pay the $200,000 debt and a further 20 million riels (about $5,000) in compensation to the claimant.