Sentencing Leah Henry, 39, in the Queenstown District Court court last week on three charges of dishonestly using a credit card, Judge Mark Williams told her she had avoided prison "by the skin of your teeth".
Her children should not have to suffer because of her behaviour and his sentence was "for them, not for you", he said.
"If you offend like this again, you’ll go to prison."
Henry was hired by the complainant, a property management company, in a role that came with a credit card.
Between March 1 and May 23 last year, she used it 60 times to make purchases outside the scope of her job, including for groceries, petrol and restaurant bills.
Her offending was uncovered after the company’s director suspected she was not being "entirely truthful" when he spoke to her about work performance issues.
An audit of the credit card revealed $3684 in unauthorised transactions.
Judge Williams said Henry had still been on bail for earlier offending, in which she had "systematically defrauded" a previous employer.
In 2020, she was sentenced to eight months’ home detention and 200 hours’ community work after being convicted on three charges of theft by a person in a special relationship.
She had stolen items worth more than $11,000 from her employer over nearly three years while managing two retail stores in Queenstown.
She was again sentenced to home detention in June last year after being convicted on six charges of dishonestly using a credit card.
Taking her employer’s credit card without permission, she used it 31 times to buy nearly $5000 worth of gift cards over a six-month period in 2023.
Counsel DeAnne Nicoloso said the offending had been driven by her financial circumstances.
Henry had spent the past three months "living in fear" of going to prison and had learned her lesson.
Judge Williams said he doubted that, given Henry knew a prison sentence was "on the cards".
"She’s come to court and put nothing in place for the care of her children.
"Where’s the real reflection on her part on her criminality?"
She was sentenced to five months’ home detention and ordered to pay $2000 of the money she owed immediately and the rest in instalments.
