Ex-Foxconn manager steals 2,000 iPhones ... ends up behind bars

Taipei: A former manager at Taiwan's technology giant Foxconn has been jailed for stealing and selling 2,000 iPhones to pocket around 8.46 million Taiwan dollars ($277,000), a court said Friday.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, is the world's largest contract electronics maker and assembles products for international brands such as Apple and Sony.

It employs about one million workers at its factories across China.

Tsai Yi-wei, who worked in the company's testing department, had instructed eight employees at Foxconn's factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen to smuggle out iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s test models between July 2013 and December 2014, the high court said.

Tsai and his accomplices then sold the phones, which were supposed to be scrapped, to stores in Shenzhen.

He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison on Thursday and can appeal the ruling.

"The defendant was the head of a department but violated the company's trust," the court said in a statement.

Foxconn reported the case to Taiwanese authorities following an internal audit and Tsai was indicted in late 2016.

The firm has been hit by a number of scandals in recent years, from employee misconduct to labour disputes.

In 2016, five former Foxconn employees were given up to 10 years and six months in prison for soliciting 160 million Taiwan dollars in kickbacks from suppliers in exchange for clearing quality checks and buying their equipment.

The company had also come under the spotlight over labour unrest, from employee suicides to the use of underage interns at its Chinese plants several years ago.