A Beijing court has sentenced eight Chinese employees of French retail giant Carrefour to jail terms of between one and five years for taking kickbacks from suppliers, state media reported on Wednesday.

The court was told the staff took payments from suppliers between May 2005 and July 2007 in exchange for buying their products or for displaying them prominently, the China Daily said.

Seven of the defendants ran fresh food sections in Beijing Carrefour outlets while the eighth was responsible for purchasing fresh meat, it said.

The court sentenced Liu Yong, head of the raw and chilled meat department of the retail chain's Beijing purchasing unit, to five years in jail for accepting 114 000 yuan ($16 600) in bribes, it said.

"I had the power to decide which supplier to sign agreements with and how much to purchase," the paper quoted the 30-year-old as saying.

"There are so many producers with the same products hoping to sell to Carrefour. They realised things would be smoother if they gave me money," he said.

Suppliers bribed the other seven, all of them supervisors at various outlets, to display their products conspicuously to boost sales, the report said.

Such kickbacks are an unwritten rule in the industry in China, Liu Lianjie, one of the seven supervisors, was quoted as saying.

The store supervisors received jail terms ranging from one year to two years for taking kickbacks worth between 17 000 yuan to 31 000 yuan, it said.

Liu Yong has filed an appeal for a lighter sentence as he has returned the bribe money, the report added.

The scandal unfolded following an internal graft probe at Carrefour. Altogether, 22 people including the eight supervisors and 12 suppliers were caught in the probe launched in July.

The company said earlier that it would strengthen its efforts to combat corruption in its ranks and raise the "professional level" of its staff.

Carrefour moved into the Chinese market in 1995 and has since built up a network of 100 supermarkets. The company says it plans to expand at the rate of 20-25 stores a year.

AFP