The skippers and 22 crew members of two Vietnamese fishing trawlers were jailed in Malaysia for up to three months today for encroaching into Malaysian waters.

The captains were fined RM100,000 or three months jail while all 22 crew members were sentenced to fines of RM10,000 each or one month's jail, the official Bernama news agency reported.

None of them could pay the fines and they were taken to prison to serve their sentences before being deported, the agency said.

A court in Kuching also ordered the equipment and catch, estimated to be worth a million ringgit, to be auctioned off.

The two trawlers, captained by Nguyen Van Chinh, 30, and Nguyen Hung Cuong, 30, were intercepted by marine police on April 28, the agency said.