But Blair Anthony Pritchard (36) and Robert Charles Kaiwai (46) may soon be out.
When the pair appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, Judge Michael Crosbie sentenced them to 22 months' and 24 months' imprisonment respectively.
However, he gave them each leave to have the sentence converted to home detention provided it was to a residential rehabilitation programme.
Pritchard had been in a relationship with the victim until the end of March, when he moved out.
But before he left he became aware the woman was expecting a significant payment for some work she had done at her father's business.
The defendants then orchestrated a ruse to swindle her out of the cash.
On April 2, Kaiwai, someone the victim had met on several social occasions, turned up at her home and said that she had "name-dropped" him to an unknown man and now had to pay $3000.
She denied any knowledge and continued to resist the man's demands when he returned 20 minutes later.
Unaware Pritchard was in on the scam, the victim called him for assistance.
He promised to get to the bottom of what was happening but later that evening she found out whose side her former partner was really on.
Pritchard messaged her to meet him in the garage but when she did not see it, they tried a more direct approach.
The victim found the defendants and a third man - his face covered in a black bandanna - on her doorstep.
They guided the woman to the garage and Kaiwai ensured her phone was turned off.
He informed her the fee had now risen to $5000.
Pritchard told her it was to be paid in full by noon on April 4 and that she was lucky he had not handed her over.
Kaiwai pointed at her body: "I wouldn't mind some of that now and again," he said.
Judge Michael Crosbie said the victim was so scared she was hyperventilating throughout the ordeal.
And the effects had been ongoing.
She had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, struggled to sleep and had left her job because of her psychological struggles.
Her children had also been adversely affected by the incident, the court heard.
Judge Crosbie said, despite the threats and demands, the men never got any money out of the victim.
"But it's the process that's the scary part for her. Whatever you think of this woman, this was no less than stand-over tactics, intimidation. There was an element of cruelty to it," he said.
"This had a huge effect on her. She says it's destroyed her life."
