A man who cheated a frozen seafood supplier of almost $1 million worth of goods was packed off to jail for four years on Thursday.

Lim Ging Chai, 48, was found guilty last month of four charges of cheating Mr Quek Ting How, managing partner of Lian Huat & Co, into believing that four companies wished to order seafood in October 2002 and induced the company into delivering $409,165 worth of seafood.

He was then the sales manager of Lian Huat.

Another eight similar charges involving $567,172 and eight other companies were taken into consideration.

The prosecution's case was that Lim was the mastermind behind the fraud.

He had told his boss, Mr Quek, that that the four companies were customers of two other seafood suppliers he had worked for.

Mr Quek then accepted the orders and supplied goods to the four, including Hai Yan Frozen Food and Yue Chai Trading.

The four were run by different people but the prosecution's case was that Lim was actually the "operating mind'' behind each of them.

Lim, who was unrepresented, claimed that two men were behind the scheme and he had only helped them to deceive Mr Quek.

He said he was merely their adviser and trusted them when they said they were able to make money.

He could have been jailed for up to seven years on each of the charges.