A man used his job at a Fyshwick business to gain access to customers' credit card details, which he used to pay for the airfares, hotel bills and limousine transfers of male escorts who travelled from interstate to see him.
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Kristian James Mynott, 42, was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday to two years and five months' jail.
But the part-time actor, whose credits include an appearance in the ABC political drama Total Control, avoided time behind bars after Justice Michael Elkaim ordered that the sentence be served through a community-based intensive correction order.
Mynott, who has also featured in advertising on Canberra buses, previously pleaded guilty to six charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
Documents tendered to the court show that between June and August 2017, Mynott was responsible for 39 fraudulent transactions, with a total value of $11,448.09, on six different customers' credit cards.
Most expenses related to escorts who travelled to Canberra to see Mynott, but he also used the cards for purchases on the Grindr app and to buy clothes, food and a pre-paid mobile SIM.
Court documents show Mynott also gave one escort the details of a customer's credit card, claiming the card was his own, and told the escort he could use the card to buy items in order to make up the fee Mynott owed him.
The escort went on to use the card details to buy several items of furniture including a "jazz lamb fur rug" and designer desk lamps, and to pay his electricity bill.
Mynott also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing stolen property after a November 2017 search of his Braddon apartment uncovered a $119.20 Swarovski necklace.
The necklace had been delivered the previous month to a woman who reported never receiving it.
Court documents show that while police were searching his apartment, Mynott told officers the necklace belonged to his girlfriend, who had left it there about two weeks earlier.
He initially said his girlfriend's name was Sarah and that he didn't know her surname, then changed his story and said her name was actually Makayla.
Justice Elkaim said Mynott had a "significant" criminal history spanning NSW, the ACT and Victoria.
He said Mynott's victims had been unsuspecting customers who had placed their trust in the business Mynott worked at, only for that trust to be breached.
But Justice Elkaim said he had also taken into account that Mynott had pleaded guilty to the charges and that his mental health was "poor".
He said Mynott was also a drug user and that the Supreme Court had recently introduced a drug and alcohol sentencing list in recognition of the fact that time behind bars was not always the answer for people with addictions.
Justice Elkaim said by ordering that Mynott serve his sentence through an intensive correction order, he was giving the man a chance to complete a rehabilitation program.
But the judge said it was not yet clear how soon this would be possible, with Mynott scheduled to face a bail hearing on separate charges in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
