World Bulletin / News Desk

A court in China's Shanxi Province has given the death penalty to four people for making bogus insurance claims after killing coalminers.

State news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that Wu Youxin, Chen Xiaoxin, Liu Quanyou and Liu Xianggang were accused of killing three people between 2009 and 2011 at private mines.

Wu was found guilty of then hiring his wife, sister and others to pose as relatives of the victims and demand compensation, cheating the mine owners of more than 890,000 Yuan ($139,000).

The People's Court of Yangquan City found Wu guilty of masterminding the scheme, fining him 80,000 Yuan ($12,500) and sentencing him to death.

Another accused man, Xiong Zijin, was fined 120,000 Yuan and jailed for seven years for falsely claiming to be the brother of a disabled man who drowned in a pit in 2007.

He was found guilty of blackmailing the mine owner for 165,000 Yuan.

In July, another court in North China sentence five people to death for killing four miners and then faking their deaths to make it look like an accident.

They then claimed compensation from the owners.