UPDATED: Man sick of playing Xbox on home detention asks for jail

A Whangarei man who said he was "sick of playing Xbox" while on home detention has got his wish to serve the rest of his sentence in jail after calling police to tell them he was going to breach detention.

Senior Constable Paul Nicholas, of Whangarei police, said the Hikurangi man rang police on Tuesday to say he was bored serving home detention, was sick of playing Xbox and would rather serve the rest of his sentence in jail instead.

Mr Nicholas said the 19-year-old had already served 10 months of an 11-month home detention term and with one month to go "had run out of Xbox games to play."

He said the man told police he would breach his home detention if he wasn't picked up and taken to jail. The man got his wish and is now in Ngawha Prison.

In sentencing people to home detention Northland judges have often said that it is not as easy a sentence as some may think, due to the restrictions it imposes. The most recent figures from The Corrections Department showed there were 159 Northland criminals on home detention in February.

Home detention was introduced in November 2007. Corrections describes it as the second-most restrictive sentence available to the courts after imprisonment.

It is also cheaper as the daily cost of administering a home detention sentence is $58, compared to $249 for imprisonment. Home detention was intended for offenders who would otherwise have received short jail sentences of two years or less.

Offenders are required to remain at an approved residence at all times under electronic monitoring. The maximum home detention sentence is 12 months, the minimum is 14 days.