A Whangarei man who fraudulently obtained money from a woman he knew on the pretext of funding urgent treatment for his "dying" dog has been sentenced to home detention and ordered to pay reparation.
Jarred Mead, 35, earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of obtaining by deception and appeared for sentencing in the Whangarei District Court.
Judge Duncan Harvey said had it not been for another judge's recommendation of a non-custodial sentence, he would have sent Mead to prison.
That was because Mead had a 19-year history of prolific dishonesty and drug offending.
Mead knew the victim of his latest offending through a programme she was part of through her church.