Dylan Kenneth Tracy Mansell, 30, appeared in the Dunedin District Court on Tuesday after admitting counts of obtaining by deception and using a document.
The charges covered $20,000 swindled from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) over two years.
The deception began four and a-half years after Mansell’s last court appearance, the court heard.
In 2017, he was sentenced to 240 hours’ community work after illegally claiming $11,277 for almost identical offending.
"One would hope that being subject to the sentence previously would have been enough to deter you from committing these offences," Judge David Robinson said. But it was not.
In August 2021, Mansell applied online for the Jobseeker Support benefit, which was granted the next day.
In making the application, the defendant agreed to inform the ministry of any changes to his circumstances that might affect his entitlement to financial assistance.
It was only when the MSD communicated with the Inland Revenue Department two years later they discovered Mansell’s dishonesty.
The department’s records showed the defendant had worked at two different moving companies during that period and was employed by a waste-disposal firm at the time he was apprehended.
In the scam, Mansell unlawfully accessed Jobseeker Support payments, winter energy funds, accommodation supplements and a special needs grant totalling $21,196.
When interviewed by Probation, he admitted he had intentionally defrauded the MSD and was "trying to get ahead".
Mansell expressed regret he was back before the court, but the judge said he did not demonstrate any significant remorse.
Counsel Alex Bligh suggested community detention (a curfew) would be an adequate response.
But Judge Robinson dismissed that as "a sentence that gets slept through".
He said Mansell was lucky to avoid incarceration, particularly given the court previously took a much sterner approach to such crime.
"In the good old days when I prosecuted these ... if you were over $18,000 fraud it was jail; none of this home-detention stuff," the judge said.
Mansell was sentenced to five months’ home detention.
The court heard he was repaying the debt to the ministry at $50 a week, which would clear it in eight years.
