An attempt to use secret recordings to get a complaint dropped has landed a Victorian councillor in jail for eight months.
Milvan Muto, 54, tried to use secret recordings of Shepparton councillors to get the council's acting chief executive to drop a complaint against him.
Victorian County Court Judge Frank Gucciardo said it was important that elected officials were held to account when they committed crimes.
"The public's confidence in the justice system will be lost unless it is made clear that such an offence will bring a prison sentence," Judge Gucciardo said on Thursday.
A jury found Muto guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Allegations of gross misconduct against Muto were made at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2012, with the council's acting chief executive one of those making a complaint.
Muto took her to his car in July 2012 and played her secret recordings of other councillors making disparaging remarks about her.
He threatened to make the recordings public on a "Sheppileaks" website unless she dropped her complaint.
Judge Gucciardo said Muto was a "volatile, energetic and blunt" man who had lost money when the Shepparton Hotel he owned burned down in 2007.
Muto was elected to the Shepparton Council in 2008 and re-elected in 2012.
"There can be little doubt your time on the council had been turbulent and divisive," Judge Gucciardo said.
Muto has previously spent time in jail over assault convictions.
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