Michael James Cyril Duxfield, 32 and from Porirua, was a professional thief and the kind of person who gave New Zealand a bad name for tourists, Judge Matheson said.
On Monday in the Whanganui District Court, he pleaded guilty to two charges of stealing from a vehicle, two charges of receiving and two charges of breaching court release conditions.
Sergeant Stephen Butler said Duxfield broke into a car on a Porirua street in September and stole a laptop and other items. When his room was searched police found plates from a stolen vehicle and a police-issue shirt, resulting in two charges of receiving.
In the same month he broke into a locked campervan in a Wellington car park and took A$1500, digital cameras, clothing and passports. He changed the money to New Zealand dollars and was seen dropping the passports in a rubbish bin.
He was also not reporting as ordered after release from his last jail term, and was not attending an alcohol and drug programme as ordered.
Judge Matheson said his criminal convictions for dishonesty stretched from 1999.
"He is truly, in my view, a professional thief."
Duxfield was sentenced to a total of nine months' prison, and told to pay $400 in reparation.