A 28-year-old dairy farm worker “let rip” with orange spray paint to hide evidence of his culpability after he broke into a digger.

Leighton Bairds had earlier admitted taking and damaging a digger on October 21 last year.

According to the summary of facts, Bairds was driving his four-wheel-drive vehicle with his partner and his seven-month-old baby.

Bairds got stuck in a remote area and decided to break into a digger to get his family out.

Judge Savage said Bairds smashed a window, removed the ignition, and used a screwdriver to start the digger. He then drove the digger and used it to free his vehicle.

Bairds then "let rip with orange spray paint" inside the digger in an attempt to hide evidence of the break-in.

Judge Savage said he could understand why Bairds broke into the digger, but the spray paint made the digger "inoperable for some time".

Bairds told the judge he'd been on a "different path" for the past two years. "It's upsetting for me because I was doing so well.”

He was sentenced to four months' community detention and nine month's supervision.

Bairds was also ordered to pay $15,000 in reparation toward the loss of income from not being able to use the digger.

"You’re a work in progress, but you’re heading in the right direction," the judge told Bairds.