A 45-year-old man has been sentenced to one and a half year’s imprisonment for his role in a series of advertising frauds that made him around 5 million kroner, TV2 News reports.

Najmul Saqib Nawaz from Copenhagen admitted to defrauding more than 100 companies between 2009 and 2011 by selling them advertisements in a publication that didn’t exist.

Kåre Pihlmann, Nawaz’s defence lawyer, pleaded for a suspended sentence in light of the fact that he pleaded guilty, but this appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Bodil Toftemann, the presiding judge, emphasised the amount of money involved and the number of victims in handing down the sentence.

“I have focused on the amounts involved and that organised crime is at issue. You have played a significant role and the crimes have been committed over a long period,” she said.

“There has also been focus on the general circumstances, because it has affected a lot of people.”

Two other men are implicated in the case but they deny the charges and are being prosecuted separately.