An armored truck guard who stole 6 million yuan ($904,000) was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Liaoning province on Thursday.

Li Xuyi was hired by a security company in July last year and was responsible for transporting cash from the Yingkou branch of Agricultural Bank of China to a storage center.

In September last year, Li diverted an armored truck he was escorting from its normal route and disarmed the guard in the passenger seat by threatening him with a "black gun", which was found later not to be a real firearm.

Li took 1 million yuan with him and stashed the rest in two locations, one near the crime scene and another in an adjacent neighborhood.

He was detained at his home eight hours after the robbery. All the money was recovered by police. Li pleaded guilty to robbing the truck.