Chinese courts have sentenced 1,449 people to prison terms of more than five years for involvement in illegal fundraising, a police official said on Friday.

The imprisoned were among a total of 4,170 people convicted since 2011 for such crimes, Miao Youshui, deputy director of the No 2 criminal tribunal under the Supreme People's Court, said during a news conference on Friday.

The number of illegal fundraising cases has been increasing in recent years, said Liu Wenxi, deputy director of the economic crime investigation bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, without giving details.