FAILED Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond was yesterday sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the biggest corporate fraud in Australian history worth Aus$1 billion (£500 million).

But Bond, 58, could be released on parole from prison in 1998 after serving a minimum one year non parole period. Already serving a three year sentence for an earlier fraud, he pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonesty last December. Bond stood impassively in the Western Australia Supreme Court dock during sentencing.

Judge Michael Murray said the latest sentence was to be served concurrently with his present sentence, which would have seen him released in August 1997. After serving the one year minimum non parole period of his latest sentence, Bond would be eligible for release in 1998.