In the Queenstown District Court yesterday before Judge Paul Kellar, a second charge of moving from his address without written approval of a probation officer on June 20, 2011, was withdrawn.
Harford was sentenced to three years and four months' jail on March 11, 2009, for his part in defrauding the Otago District Health Board with former board chief information officer Michael Swann of almost $17 million.
He was released on April 26, 2010, three days after he became eligible for parole, having served one year and six weeks in prison, as well as several months while remanded in custody.
Representing the Department of Corrections, John Young said Harford was made "fully aware" of the standard and special conditions of his parole and the consequences of non-compliance.
One of those conditions was to notify his probation officer "prior to starting, terminating or changing your place of employment".
On June 21 last year, Harford sent a text to a probation officer advising "I am working in CHCH for 3 months".
Mr Young said that constituted a breach of his parole because he began work without notifying his probation officer.
Harford's sentence was due to end in February and Mr Young said the department had indicated it was not seeking "any penalty other than conviction".
"This process was brought to really make him take responsibility for his actions. That has been achieved from the department's point of view".
Defence counsel Greg King said Harford sent an email to what he thought was his probation officer's email address.
"It was an incorrect address."
The email did not "bounce back", but Harford admitted his failure in not following up with his probation officer to "make absolutely sure [they] knew what he was doing".
"Ironically", once the situation came to light, his employment in Christchurch, where he was working as a surveyor assisting with the rebuilding of Christchurch, was approved "without any problems whatsoever", Mr King said.
As a consequence of his offending, Harford had been made to report weekly while in Christchurch, rather than the previous requirement to report once a fortnight, "which was somewhat onerous for him".
"He does accept ... his error was not following up on that email.
"It's about as technical a breach as one can get."
Harford could not be reregistered as a surveyor until November next year because of a "five-year stand-down period", Mr King said.
Harford's original conviction had "nothing whatsoever" to do with his work and was a "completely unrelated matter that he got himself caught up in with an old school friend".
"In my submission, no penalty is warranted."
Judge Kellar said he agreed with Mr King's submission it was a "very technical" breach of conditions and in all other respects Harford had complied with his release conditions "admirably" and had "fully rehabilitated and reintegrated".
"Having regard to all the circumstances and the technical nature of the breach, the steps that you took before and afterwards and your overall compliance with conditions, I convict and discharge you," Judge Kellar said.
