An appellate court on Thursday maintained a lower court's suspended jail sentence against a scion of SK Group, one of the country's largest conglomerates, for use of marijuana.

Earlier, Chey Young-geun, a grandson of SK Group founder Chey Jong-gun, was indicted of having bought and habitually consumed some 81 grams of marijuana in the form of cookie or by using cartridges for about a year from March last year. 

In early September, the Incheon District Court sentenced the 31-year-old Chey to a year in prison, suspended for two years.

"(The court) maintains the original ruling given that the defendant does not have a criminal history and has shown a strong will to get off drugs," the Seoul High Court said.

Reminding that drug offenders have a high rate of recidivism, however, the court warned that chances are high that the defendant will be put behind bars if he re-offends.

Chey, a son of Chey Yoon-won, the late chairman of SK Chemicals Co., worked at SK D&D, a property development arm of the family-owned conglomerate, known as chaebol here.                 

The appellate court's ruling on Chung Hyun-sun, a grandson of Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung, is also scheduled for Jan. 15.

The 28-year-old Chung received the same verdict as Chey in the first trial after he had been accused of having smoked marijuana with the SK group scion on four occasions after the two became friends while studying abroad. (Yonhap)