Beijing - A bogus Chinese army general who swindled 27-million yuan (R23-million) from a company has been jailed for life by a court in Beijing, a newspaper reported.

In 2002, Dong Kunlun, 58, duped China Xinyi Group into signing a contract with a fictitious army company for the sale of "large amounts of military supplies", the Beijing News reported.

During business discussions, Dong wore a general's uniform, drove a luxury car with military number plates and travelled with two bogus security guards, the paper quoted a company vice-president surnamed Zhao as saying.

The company never had any suspicions, Zhao said.

Dong, who had previously been sentenced to 1-½ years in jail for fraud in 1998, had spent 17.31 million yuan of the company's money, the paper said, buying six houses, three cars and settling millions in debts.