The case involving fugitive economist Steven Cheung Ng-sheong and his missing paintings may be closed, but the truth about the professor's business dealings remains unclear. Candy Tsang Cheuk-sze, a former employee of the Cheung-owned Dandelion Fine Arts, was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for stealing three oil paintings worth HK$1.4 million from the Central art gallery and falsifying HK$7,287 in expenses charged to the company. Her husband, Thomas Yeung Wai-ming, was acquitted of all charges last month. During sentencing, Tsang's lawyer Andrew Raffell emphasised Tsang's clean criminal record and good employment record and argued that her life would have continued in a 'normal, boring way' if she had never worked for Cheung. Tsang wept as Raffell described how 'she was so far out of her depth, she didn't even know she was out of her depth' working for Cheung. Cheung, a famed Hong Kong economist, was considered a contender for the Nobel Prize before he and his wife were indicted on US tax evasion and fraud charges in 2003. He fled to the mainland to avoid prosecution and still lives there. 'An employer is only entitled to say there's a breach of trust if he himself is trustworthy. He is obviously not trustworthy ... he ran away,' Raffell said. Judge Joseph Yau Chi-lap countered that in taking the paintings, Tsang was 'still in breach of trust ... even if Cheung was not trustworthy'. Tsang worked at Dandelion from May 1999 until she resigned in March 2008. She worked as a sales executive and was later promoted to manager, responsible for running the gallery. During the trial, both prosecution and defence witnesses said that Tsang worked for Cheung and his wife, running an eBay business selling art. She helped Cheung deliver art works across the border. Yau said he had taken into account Tsang's clean record and the errands assigned to her by Cheung - 'which were of doubtful legitimacy'. The petite Tsang, 38, wept at times during sentencing but seemed most emotional when the judge described her broken relationship with her parents and the loving marriage she had enjoyed with Yeung for 14 years. Raffell said the case had rocked this 'simple, straightforward family'. 'It's like an earthquake in their lives. A massive, massive catastrophe.' Tsang was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail for each painting stolen, to be served concurrently. In addition, Yau sentenced her to three months for falsifying expenses, making a total of three years. The defence team said it had no plan to appeal against the sentence. During the trial, court was not able to determine the true owner of the stolen paintings. The judge did, however, affirm Cheung's ownership of Dandelion Fine Arts and its parent company, West Coast International - two companies at the centre of the 2003 US indictment against Cheung. Additional reporting by Austin Chiu