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SINGAPORE : A former oil trader for Mitsui Oil Asia has been sentenced to five years' jail for falsifying accounts to cover up millions in losses.

His crime led to the closure of his company, which was once among the top players in oil markets.

Noriyuki Yamazaki looked relaxed as he made his way to court with his wife for sentencing on Wednesday. He had pleaded guilty last Friday to falsifying documents.

The court was told that Mr Yamazaki made bad bets on the petroleum product, naphtha. He then tried to hide the fact by making false entries in the company's accounts 109 times between April and October 2006.

He said he genuinely believed that the market would recover, and was trying to buy time. But the losses were discovered after a regular internal review of trading operations.

According to the prosecution, US$81 million was lost. That was 10 times the maximum loss limit set for the company as a whole, and Mitsui Oil Asia subsequently closed down.

Some said this case brings to mind Nick Leeson - the rogue trader who single-handedly brought down Britain's oldest merchant bank, Barings. Mr Leeson was sentenced to six-and-a-half years' jail in Singapore.

District Judge Chia Wee Kiat said Mr Yamazaki should not have taken "matters into his own hands", and had inflicted "irreparable damage" on the company.

Mr Yamazaki has been handed a five-year jail term which he is appealing.

Some lawyers Channel NewsAsia spoke to said the sentence was rather stiff, but did not come as a surprise, considering the recent financial scandals overseas involving prominent figures such as Bernard Madoff and Robert Allen Stanford.