A man has been sentenced to five years in jail in Tonga for forging passports.

The 50-year-old from Kolofo'ou was charged with offences including false declaration, forgery, knowingly dealing with forged documents and bribery.

The last 12 months of his jail sentence has been suspended.

The case involved collusion with government workers and others to forge documents in support of an application for a Tongan passport for a foreign national.

A passport taskforce was set up nearly two years ago and has made 32 arrests over passport scams.

Thirteen people have pleaded guilty and 19 are awaiting trial.

The Tongan police say investigations into passport fraud are continuing.