A defiant former MP insists he is casual and reckless but not a criminal after being convicted of fraudulently claiming almost $5000 from a parliamentary allowance.
Fraser John Ellis, 34, was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Thursday, only for it to be suspended on the condition he agreed to a good behaviour bond.
Outside Adelaide Magistrates Court, the former Liberal MP said he respectfully disagreed with the court and did not believe his actions "arose to a level of criminality".
The former member for Narungga, which covers the Yorke Peninsula west of Adelaide, was found guilty of four counts of deception in 2024 and acquitted on another 19 counts.
Prosecutors challenged that decision and in July, the Court of Appeal found Ellis guilty of three more offences.
Phone, travel and diary records showed the offending covered 20 nights of claims from the country members accommodation allowance between December 2018 and May 2020, totalling $4676.
The first-term MP quit the Liberal Party when charges were laid but retained his regional seat as an independent in 2022.
He ran third to One Nation's Chantelle Thomas in March's South Australian election.
The charges stemmed from a corruption watchdog's investigation into parliamentary expenses, which also triggered the resignations of two ministers and two parliamentary office holders.
Magistrate Simon Smart said the process for claiming the allowance was "founded on the trust and honesty of claimants as members of parliament".
"Your offending, therefore, was a clear breach of that trust," he told Ellis.
"The claims were not mistakes but deliberate falsehoods ... and deliberate misrepresentations."
"The issue at trial was whether you had intentionally deceived another and whether you had been acting dishonestly in benefiting yourself - the finding in each instance was that you had."
Ellis had repaid the claims but "your lawyer has frankly acknowledged that the repayment of those monies cannot be treated as an act of contrition," Mr Smart said.
Outside court, Ellis said he was one of "a whole bunch of MPs" found to have made mistakes on their claim forms six-and-a-half years ago.
"I believe there was a casualness with my paperwork that I can plead guilty (to) in a heartbeat," the man elected in 2018 said.
"But I do not believe I acted in a criminal manner."
While Ellis was found guilty of claiming 20 nights, there were a further 19 nights where phone data showed he was in Adelaide but did not lay a claim, he said.
"That to me shows the casualness, and recklessness, perhaps, but certainly not criminality," he said.
Despite his claims, he declared his "respect for the judicial system."
"Such is life - I do bear responsibility for that casualness and I accept the punishment as it has been doled out today."
Ellis, who is married with two young children, has been unable to secure full-time work since leaving politics and has been working part-time in his parents' newspaper business.
Mr Smart said there was a general public expectation that public officials acted with probity and honesty, particularly as concerns public means, and they would be "held accountable should they not do so".
"These factors satisfy me that a sentence emphasising general deterrence is called for to dis-incline others to offend in the same way," he said.
"I am satisfied the only penalty that can be justified ... is one of imprisonment."
But he suspended the sentence, noting Ellis was a "comparatively young man" with no prior convictions, family responsibilities, broad community support and the support of his family.
Ellis was placed on a $1,000, one-year good behaviour bond
