A Honiara lawyer will serve considerable time in prison after he was found guilty of conversion charges.

Charles Levo was found guilty of five counts of conversion all relating to 2005 when he was the legal advisor of the National Bank of Solomon Islands, now Bank South Pacific.

The Court heard that during 2005 he was one of the signatories in charge of a Land Royalty account, which he abused by withdrawing 15,000 dollars on five different occasions.

Handing down the sentence on Friday, Magistrate Emma Garo said that Levo, both as a lawyer and a legal advisor, had abused his position to enable him to commit these offences.

Magistrate Garo added that as a signatory to the account, he was relied upon to act in the best interests of his people, which in this case he did not.

She said the Courts have a duty to show the community's disapproval of such an offence and in almost all cases immediate custodial sentences have been imposed.

Magistrate Garo sentenced Levo to serve six months for the first count, two years for the second count, six months for the third count, two years for the fourth count and five years for the fifth count.

He is to serve all penalties concurrently, with a suspended sentence of 12 months.