Singer Tommy Yuen was on Thursday sentenced to 26 months in prison for making seditious comments and laundering more than HK$700,000 raised through crowdfunding.

Yuen, a former member of the now-disbanded Cantopop boy group E-kids, earlier pleaded guilty to the charges.

The District Court heard that Yuen posted seditious comments on his Facebook and Instagram pages about a police officer who died in the line of duty and a magistrate who was on leave due to a heart condition.

The 43-year-old also handled HK$718,788 raised through the sale of cookies and falsely claimed the money was to support a woman charged with rioting.

In passing sentence, judge Ernest Lin said Yuen had incited anger towards the government and exploited people's sympathy for the woman – who didn't exist – for his own gain.

Lin said he had given Yuen a one-third discount to his jail term because of the guilty pleas.

The singer had been remanded in custody since February last year.