A man who defrauded a large number of banks to get loans to build public cemeteries for large profits has been sentenced to life in jail in Shanwei, a coastal city in the eastern part of South China's Guangdong province.

Lin Yaochang also was deprived of his political rights for life and all assets he illegally gained were confiscated, according to the Shanwei Intermediate People's Court in its first instance judgement on Wednesday.

Lin, who was dubbed the "Grandpa of Graves" by locals, used to be the manager of a public cemetery in Tanxi township of Lufeng city.

He was investigated regarding illegally obtained bank loans valued at 60.3 million yuan ($8.61 million) from a local rural credit cooperative through counterfeiting certificates, contracts, invoices and related documents since 2009.

Lin then used the loaned money to illegally build a total of 5,164 public graves and sold them for large profits.

To build the public cemeteries, Lin illegally changed the land use purposes, occupied a total of 5.88 hectares of forest area and destroyed farmlands before he was given the green light by the relevant department.

The investigation showed Lin owed loans valued at 59.73 million yuan when he was detained in September 2017.

Meanwhile, Lin was investigated regarding a 200,000 yuan bribe offered to the director of the Public Security Bureau in Shanwei.