Two employers have been sentenced to prison terms for employing illegal laborers in Macao, local media reported Monday.

The Macao Post Daily quoted court sources as saying that one of the defendants was given a seven-month term and the other a nine- month one.

The two defendants received particularly "heavy and swift" sentences for their repeat offending, the sources told the newspaper.

In the first case, the 60-year-old interior contractor surnamed Leong was found hiring a mainlander who was holding tourist document and in the second case, the 43-year-old hawker was found employing two mainlanders working at his fruit stall, according to the newspaper.

The Public Security Police announced last week that the number of illegal laborers reached 429 in the first half of the year, a year-on-year rise of 80 percent.