ROME/MOSCOW, June 20 (RAPSI) - The first-instance court of Milan (Tribunale di Milano) has sentenced fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to one year and eight months in prison each for tax evasion, TMNews reports.

The designers lawyers said they would appeal the court ruling, according to the report. 

Reuters reported earlier that the Italian tax and judicial authorities have been investigating the founders of the Dolce&Gabbana trademark over the past few years.

According to the investigators, the fashion house's managers have been distorting their financial reports and falsifying their tax declarations since 2004, when Dolce & Gabbana Luxemburg sarl and Gado sarl were established in Luxembourg, allegedly to escape a tax bill of up to EUR 1 billion.

In April 2011, Judge Simone Luerti dismissed the charges as unsubstantiated. But in November 2011 the Supreme Court of Cassation overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial.

In late March the Milan Court of Appeals found the fashion designers guilty of EUR 1 billion tax evasion and fined them EUR 343 million. 

In late May, the Milan prosecutors asked that both designers be sentenced to 2.5 years in prison each.