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A man who broke into his own place of employment after knocking off for the day says it was just a "dumb act".

Lawrence James Gamble faced the Wodonga Magistrates Court on Tuesday following the incident earlier this year.

He had knocked off from the Baranduda Garden Barn on Whytes Road, where he had worked for about six months, about 1pm on the day of the offence.

The customer service and maintenance worker returned at 2.05pm, parked a utility at the front gate and climbed through a fence to access the site.

He went to an office building and, while wearing gloves, used a metal bar to smash his way inside the building.

Gamble knew there was an envelope containing $5000 to $6000 somewhere in the building and rummaged through filing cabinets in a bid to find it.

When he couldn't find the cash, he moved security cameras and sourced an angle grinder, which he used to cut a lock off a safe.

He took money out of a cash register and eventually found the envelope containing about $5000.

The total value of the theft was $6100.

Gamble handed himself in to Wodonga police on February 2, just a few days after the break-in.

He made full admissions to police and was charged by a detective from the crime investigation unit.

"He showed remorse," prosecutor Les Hare told the court.

"He said he deposited all the money into his ANZ account so he could pay some bills."

Gamble said the offending had been an attempt to "make life easier".

He told the court he had been going through a rough patch.

"Just a dumb act and just a bad time," Gamble told magistrate Ian Watkins.

Mr Watkins said he assumed he had lost his job, which the Culcairn man confirmed.

"I'm trying to get myself back on track a bit," Gamble said.

He left the business owner all of his holiday pay and the last week of wage to pay back some of the debt.

"I'll pay the rest of it when I can," he said.

Mr Watkins said it was "a very serious offence".

"You've got a prior for it, but over 20 years ago," he said.

"And you've acknowledged responsibility for it by pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.

"You made full admissions to police."

Mr Watkins had considered community work, but said that would be hard as Gamble works six days a week in his new job and doesn't live in Victoria.

He instead imposed a $3000 fine and ordered he pay back the $1806 he still owes his former boss for his offending.

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