A Sydney man has been slapped with an 18-month suspended jail sentence after helping thousands of people access Foxtel without paying the TV network a single cent.

Haidar Majid Salam Al Baghdadi, 33, was convicted of operating an illegal network that sold unauthorised access to subscription TV.

Sydney's Downing Centre court found he had helped more than 8000 people bypass Foxtel's paywall. Judge Robert Toner sentenced him to an 18 month suspended sentence.

The convicted TV pirate was originally charged with unauthorised access to a subscription broadcaster in December 2013. At the time, federal police alleged Mr Al Baghdadi used decoders and smartcards to set up a card-sharing network from a business in Sydney's southwest.