Three Australian employees of James Packer’s Crown Resorts will be released from a Chinese jail over the next two months after pleading guilty to illegally promoting gambling.

The staff have been sentenced to between nine and 10 months’ jail after pleading guilty in a Shanghai court on Monday.

Seventeen staff and two former Crown employees faced the court.

Of the three Australians detained, Melbourne-based executive Jason O’Connor was sentenced to 10 months in prison, while China-based staff Jerry Xuan and Pan Dan were sentenced to nine months’ jail.

All three have already served eight months in a Shanghai jail, and their sentence includes time already served.

With time served, Xuan and Dan should have one month remaining, while O’Conner should have two months.

A small team of Australian private security guards helped escort some of the relatives as they went into the court complex.

Other relatives arrived independently, including one supporter who arrived in a Rolls Royce.

Ahead of the sentence, no family members were willing to talk to the media, although some relatives arrived with flowers in expectation of an imminent release.

When asked how the detainees were coping, one of the defence lawyers said “they are all very good”.

The Australian consulate-general in Shanghai also attended the trial but had no comment when going in.

-ABC