Two bank workers were sentenced to death on Thursday. They were involved in China's largest ever bank theft of 50.95 million yuan, in northern Hebei Province.

Ren Xiaofeng, 34, and Ma Xiangjing, 37, both worked as vault managers at the Handan branch of the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC). Both were convicted of grand larceny and given the death penalty at the Handan Intermediate People's Court after preliminary hearings.

Zhao Xuenan and Zhang Qiang, who joined Ren in embezzling 200,000 yuan in October of last year, were sentenced to five years and two years in prison respectively, each with a two-year reprieve.

Song Changhai was sentenced to three years in jail for harboring Ma when he was on the run.

Ren, Ma and Zhao planned to appeal, according to a court spokesman.

The court heard evidence that in October of last year, Ren conspired with Zhao Xuenan and Zhang Qiang. Both were employed to watch the vault when Ren embezzled 200,000 yuan.

The court was told that the money was spent on lotteries, but that Ren later replaced the missing funds after he won a lottery prize.

From March 16 to April 14 this year, Ren collaborated with Ma, who replaced Zhang Qiang as a bank employee, and stole 50.95 million yuan in cash. On April 14, the two carried out a heist of 18 million yuan.

On April 16 branch managers reported the theft to police after they discovered that millions of yuan had gone missing.

The Public Security Ministry placed Ren and Ma on its most wanted list.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2007)