Chinese authorities have cracked down on a gang that offered illegal sex determination services to women, a procedure that is often tied to sex-selective abortions, China's health ministry has said.

Authorities have arrested 10 people, according to the ministry. One of the gang's leaders, Wang Ermin, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and fined £10,000. His subordinates received more lenient jail terms. Police also froze a bank account belonging to the network, which contained £112,000.

Since 2010, the group has solicited clients from across the country and carried out the procedures at a clinic in Zhengzhou, Henan province. More than 1,000 women used the service last year, the ministry of health notice said, many of them from the affluent coastal province of Zhejiang.

"This went on for a long time, covering a wide area and involved many people," the notice said. "It was malicious, had serious results and was a great threat to society."

In November 2012, one of the group's clients – from Yiwu City, Zhejiang – died of an amniotic fluid embolism after the procedure, according to a report in the state-owned China News Service.

China outlawed sex determination procedures in the late 1980s, as a traditional preference for boys – coupled with a one-child policy – has led to a high incidence of abortions of female foetuses, skewing the country's gender ratio.

According to official statistics for 2012, 117 boys were born for every 100 girls. Throughout much of rural China, having a son is considered a point of pride and an economic necessity – daughters tend to leave the family after marriage whereas sons do not.

The one-child policy and gender imbalance have also contributed to a high incidence of human trafficking, as some desperate couples and unmarried men venture outside the law to find baby boys and future brides.

Last week, a court gave a suspended death sentence to a doctor in Shaanxi province, north-west China, for stealing seven newborns from the hospital where she worked and selling them to traffickers.

China announced a dramatic revision to its one-child policy late last year, allowing couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. The policy already allows some rural couples to have a second child if their first child is a girl. On Friday, Zhejiang became the first province to implement the revised policy.