BEIJING, Nov 17: Two men who tried to scalp over 500 Olympic Games tickets have been jailed and fined a total of 894,000 yuan ($131,000) in the biggest such case in Beijing so far, state media said on Monday.

He Yongsheng and Fu Shuiguo were sentenced to 30 and 18 months in prison respectively, the China Daily reported.

He, 41, agreed to buy entrance tickets for the Olympics for two companies at prices 50 to 60 percent higher than the official ones.

He agreed to provide 200 tickets for a law firm in the southern city of Guangzhou in March last year, which gave him 640,000 yuan to do the transaction, according to a report on the semi-official China News Service.

He then said he would buy tickets for an air-conditioning company in Beijing, which handed over a 40,000 yuan deposit.

It is unclear whether the two companies were complicit in the scam or if they were duped.

In order to book online, He obtained more than 500 ID card details through Fu’s construction firm, pretending to need them for a contract, according to the report.

He also got 2,000 pieces of personal information through other means, and proceeded to book 527 tickets online for a total of 230,000 yuan, the report said. He subsequently made fake ID cards, as these were required to go and collect the tickets at bank branches.

In May this year, he got two men to go and collect tickets bought online, but a bank employee realised the 10 ID cards they had were fake and called the police. Authorities had warned that anyone found trying to resell Olympic tickets at a higher price would face severe punishment.—AFP