Matthew Craig Rosten, 36, of the Mid Western Highway at Evans Plains appeared in person before magistrate Bruce Williams who told Rosten that if he had any recent criminal convictions he would have been jailed full-time.

Rosten's solicitor, Fiona Sams, said her client was a manager in the beauty industry who had worked all over the world including Sydney and the United Kingdom.

She said he was very remorseful and the offending occurred in the context of a gambling addiction, describing his conduct as "a brain snap" for her client.

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In submissions, Ms Sams said if Mr Williams felt the threshold had been crossed, the court could consider an Intensive Corrections Order or, if not, a Community Corrections Order with treatment and supervision.

Police facts tendered to the court told how between February and August this year Rosten dishonestly obtained $3654.87 by making fraudulent refunds at Bunnings stores across the Central West and Sydney.

Bathurst, Lithgow and Orange stores were among the stores targeted by the accused, along with Bunnings stores in Sydney including Ashfield and Alexandra.

The court heard that in July a loss prevention officer from Bunnings reported to police fraudulent transactions at numerous Bunnings stores across NSW.

Within all these incidents the accused located a receipt, entered the store without items and located items on the shelf within the store before taking the item from the shelf to the refund counter, receiving a refund.

In all there were 43 incidents, all captured on CCTV with the footage clearly depicting the accused entering the store empty-handed and approaching the refund desk with the matching product and receiving a refund.

The amounts ranged from more than $300 to as little as $4.40 with $3654.87 fraudulently obtained over 43 transactions.

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On Thursday September 17, the accused was arrested by detectives but declined to make any comment to police.

References tendered to the court spoke of surprise at the charges against the accused, describing them as out of character. The referees also outlined Rosten's remorse and embarrassment in relation his offending conduct.

In sentencing, Mr Williams said Rosten had "plenty of time to think about it" but said if he had any recent criminal convictions "I'd be sending you to jail full-time".

Convicting Rosten, he took into account the early plea of guilt and placed him on a two-year CCO with supervision and counselling, and fined him $2000.