Song Chenglin, Zhang Yulong, Lu Guoxing and Bu Yijun, all university students in China's northeast city of Harbin, have been sentenced to between 10-15 years in prison for their roles in an online bank heist.

The four took advantage of online account transfers and stole more than CNY530000 from different savings offices of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Harbin.

The court sentenced Song Chenglin, the ringleader, to 15 years in prison. Evidence to the court showed that Song first obtained an online banking card in 2003 and afterwards spent time in Internet cafes gathering research on the banks. He also spent time copying 158 clients' card numbers and passwords. Later he used a false identification card and obtained six other cards from the bank and colluded with the three accessories in the online account transferring scheme.

The three accomplices were each sentenced to 10 years in prison.