A former vice mayor in east China's Anhui Province was sentenced to 12 years and half Wednesday for taking 1.6 million yuan (234,297 U.S. dollars) in bribes.

Lv Jinbao, former vice mayor of Ma'anshan City, was convicted of taking more than 1.5 million yuan and 9,500 U.S. dollars in bribes from real estate contractors and others between April 1997 and November 2008, the Hefei Municipal Intermediate People's Court said after a first-instance trial.

The court also confiscated 150,000 yuan of Lv's personal property.

Lv, 52, was given a lenient sentence as he confessed several crimes that prosecutors had no prior knowledge of, and most of the bribes were recovered, the court said.

Lv was arrested in January this year.

He served as governor and Party chief of Jinjiazhuang District of the city from March 1996, and was promoted to vice mayor of Ma'anshan city in January 2003.