A couple, both at their 30s, was sentenced to jail for two years and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,630) for fraud, Nen.com.cn reported on Thursday.

The suspects, surnamed Zhang and Shao, both worked as agents for a beer company and made more than 140,000 fake bottle caps using a capping machine. Each of the fake caps can be used to claim 0.5 yuan as a buyback.

They also employed four people to help them produce the fake bottle caps.

The bottle caps were valued at 72,210 yuan. The couple tried to use the caps to claim the buyback price but failed after an employee from the beer company found that the caps were fake.

They surrendered to police in December 2011.