An Australian man has avoided jail time after he faked his own kidnapping so that he could spend New Year’s Eve with his sex worker mistress instead of his girlfriend.

Paul Iera, 36, from Wollongong, New South Wales, was ordered Tuesday to do 350 hours of community service for orchestrating the Dec, 31 hoax, which led police to waste about 200 hours — equivalent to more than $25,000 in taxpayer money, or about US $16,040, according to 9 News.

Iera left his home just before 11:45 p.m., telling his unnamed partner he was going out to meet his “financial guy,” an Australian court heard.

But just a few hours later, prosecutors said, Iera’s partner received a text message from his mistress claiming he had been kidnapped.

The mistress told her “Thank you for sending Paul to me, now payback is a b****, bye-bye.

“But I’m going to be fare (sic), OK, we will keep him with us until the morning when (sic) he gives us his bike,” the text message read. “We call it square, no one’s touching him, my word I’ll give you, OK hun.”

Fearing for his safety, Iera’s girlfriend then contacted the local police, who started checking surveillance footage and spoke to witnesses, according to the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, Iera decided to reach out to his father the next day, telling him he had been kidnapped the night before but was back in Wollongong.

He said his kidnappers were dropping him back at his car nearby, the Daily Mail reports.

Upon hearing the news, cops carried out what they called a “high-risk” vehicle stop on Iera’s van, believing he was being held hostage inside, according to the Mail.

But they only found him inside the car.

Iera claimed to police he was captured by “unknown Middle Eastern males” hired by his mistress to get him to turn over his bike.

The story fell apart less than two weeks later when police found security footage showing he had been with the sex worker that night.

Other footage showed Iera and his lover getting into her vehicle just minutes after he called his father. The woman then returned home alone a few minutes later.

In court on Tuesday, Magistrate Michael Ong admonished Iera’s “abhorrent behavior,” saying his actions were “motivated by the least compelling reason he has ever come across,” according to 9 News.

“You chose to send alarming, frightening messages to your partner so you could get some extra time with another partner,” he told Iera. “You thought that would be a great way to do it — any reasonable person would have gone to the public, and that is exactly what happened.”

“You are at a point where you need to make a choice. You either take a step back, look at yourself and your circumstances and move towards furthering yourself, or alternatively you will move into a situation where imprisonment will be a very realistic option.”

In addition to being sentenced to 350 hours of community service, he was ordered to pay $16,000 (or about US $10,266) to the New South Wales police.

In a statement following the sentencing, Iera’s lawyer said he “is pleased to have avoided a [jail] sentence today.

“Since the commission of the offense, Mr. Iera has made tremendous rehabilitative progress, and today’s outcome is reflective of [the] Court’s attempt to promote that ongoing rehabilitation,” Abbas Soukie said.

“Mr. Iera continues to enjoy the support of his family and partner, and wishes to move forward with life as a productive member of the community,” he added.