A 20-year-old man has been sentenced to one year's jail for using a forklift to break open a safe last November.

John Rowell was also ordered to pay USD7000 in restitution and USD600 in fines, and received five years' probation and six months' electronic monitoring for breaking into a building and safe breaking at a conference centre.

Rowell had started work at the centre only weeks before the crime, and used his staff key to enter the building. He used a forklift to break open the safe to steal cash.

Rowell used the money to buy a Chevrolet Monte Carlo the same day, the court heard. Detectives arrested him at a friend's house two days later.