Following a jury trial at the Dunedin District Court in September, Nicholas Birch (30) was convicted of attempting to obstruct the course of justice and committing an indecent act on a 15-year-old boy.
He remotely accessed the phone before police could examine it, and removed texts and other incriminating material linking him to the sexual offending against the 15-year-old, between August 24 and September 6 last year.
This came after police had questioned him over the allegations made by the teen.
Judge Peter Rollo said at sentencing today that the victim originally got in touch with Birch after hearing of his sexual preferences and seeing the potential to make some quick cash.
The pair agreed the boy would perform a sex act on himself for money.
The victim claimed Birch had touched him when that happened but the jury rejected that version of events.
The defendant eventually sealed his own fate by admitting he indecently touched the boy when they met again a week later.
The jury decided he knew the victim was underage.
The judge said Birch's actions in later wiping his iPhone memory were of little consequence because police had a lot of the messages from the victim's phone.
Birch has almost 100 convictions, mainly for fraud, some involving falsely promising to pay young men tens of thousands of dollars to perform sex acts.
His most recent prison term was of 23 months for making a false statement and three of driving while disqualified.
In March 2015, Birch stood in the Alexandra District Court claiming to be the representative of a ‘‘successful businessman, horse trainer and philanthropist’’ vouching for a criminal in the dock.
He offered to pay more than $25,000 the burglar owed in reparation, and claimed there was employment waiting for him when his sentence ended, which resulted in the man receiving a sentence discount.
But the story was a ruse.
Birch and the man had been cell-mates at the Otago Corrections Facility until 19 days before the incident, and the sentencing judge said the whole scenario appeared to have been set up while the pair were behind bars.
As a result of today's sentencing, the defendant was added to the Child Sex Offender Register.