An Adelaide man convicted of diverting $1.15 million from small businesses and charities in a "sophisticated" computer hacking scheme has had his sentence reduced.
Jason Bran Lees, 34, was sentenced to eight years and nearly seven months in the South Australian District Court in February, with a non-parole period of five years.
He successfully appealed to have his sentence reduced. It was cut to six years and 10 months.
The Court of Appeal found the District Court judge "erroneously identified the maximum penalty" for 10 out of the 21 charges.
Lees, alongside his co-accused and partner at the time Emily Jane Walker, devised an elaborate computer hacking scheme that targeted the payroll systems of at least 23 organisations, including a charity for disadvantaged Indigenous Australians.
Working out of their Seaton home, the couple diverted automated payments to fraudulent bank accounts they had set up using stolen identification.
Lees also created fake tax returns with real identities to receive tax refunds.
The court ruled that Lees was the "architect" of the customised hacking software.
Their co-accused, a 31-year-old man formerly of Adelaide, was sentenced to 11 years in jail in Sydney last year.
The Court of Appeal heard victims lost an initial amount of $771,000, of which $518,000 was recovered by anti-fraud detection systems.
The couple used the money to fund their drug addiction and claimed the offending was committed in "a drug haze".
The pair pleaded guilty to dozens of charges including possessing a computer virus with intent to commit a serious computer offence, possessing prohibited documents and dishonest dealings with documents.
But during sentencing, the District Court judge said the drugs consumed did not seem to impair the 34-year-old's "ability to offend in such a premeditated, targeted and sophisticated way".
The Court of Appeal agreed with the District Court judge that the offending was "serious and sophisticated", adding it was "preparatory in nature".
"Having regard to the appellant's lack of offending history, expressed remorse, rehabilitation to date and good prospects, the Court fixes a non-parole period of four years," the court ruled.
"As the sentencing judge observed, there are no proper grounds for the sentence to be suspended or served on home detention."
The non-parole period was backdated to August last year when Lees was taken into custody.
