The man who graffitied the site of a Jewish ceremony with Nazi symbols told police he planned to shock the community.

But he later apologised for his "insensitive and childish behaviour" after a restorative justice conference.

Craig David Miller, 45, of Bader, Hamilton, had previously admitted his January 2015 Parana Park graffiti spree to police.

On January 26, the night before a Holocaust remembrance ceremony, he went to the park with an "unknown associate", stencils of Nazi symbols and spray cans, according to a summary of facts.

He admitted to police that he'd graffitied the war memorial and surrounding areas with 57 swastikas, and phrases linked with Hitler's regime.

"The defendant stated he had intended to shock the Jewish community," the police summary said.

Council staff managed to clean up the damage before the ceremony the following day.

Miller appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Tuesday to be sentenced on a charge of intentional damage.

Judge David Wilson said the graffiti was "an attack on the Jewish community, who you intended to hurt".

The "desecration" of the war memorial would also have offended many other Hamilton citizens, he said.

In May, Miller attended a restorative justice conference which included Jewish community members.

"You have described that process as making you feel 'so small'," Wilson said.

"That has led you to write letters to me and to express in writing your deep remorse for your own insensitivity about their remembrance day."

Miller had also apologised for what he had called his "insensitive and childish behaviour".

Defence lawyer Rob Quin said his client accepted his offending was serious and assured him it wouldn't happen again.

Miller's views wouldn't change "overnight" but he realised he needed to do better at keeping them to himself.

"It does seem he has an understanding of the effects his actions have had on the community."

Miller had also provided references from his brother, a family friend, and his employer - who supported Miller, but not his actions.

Wilson said it was a difficult sentencing and some people in the community would see sending Miller to prison as "a right and proper action".

But Miller received a different sentence: 24 months of intensive supervision, 200 hours of community work and to pay $2000 in reparation to Hamilton City Council for the cleaning.

"There is a need for you to understand the effects of your offending. The sentence ... is not going to be easy," he said.

Speaking outside court, Waikato Jewish Association member Sylvie Rabinovitch Bolstad said she was satisfied with the sentence.

"I feel that any sentence that requires an ongoing accountability and some ongoing consciousness-rasing is probably the most constructive sentence there can be," she said.

"You can't always change what people believe but I suppose you can try to bring them around to understanding how their beliefs can conflagrate, they can light a fire."

Rabinovitch Bolstad was one of the Jewish community members who went to the restorative justice conference.

"The Jewish community here is very small. We haven't done many public events, if any, because there always is that residual fear that something will happen," she said.

"Lo and behold, we have this one public event and out he comes."

During sentencing, Wilson raised concerns about Miller's "white supremacist views".

"I'm concerned about your sense of entitlement and your talk about immigrants," Wilson said.

"We're all immigrants [in New Zealand]. You're one of them."

Miller also had an extensive criminal history and was an alcoholic and had "a habit of drinking excessively every day".

But Wilson noted positives about Miller too - his care for his son and a hobby of building small cars.

The successful restorative justice conference and letters of remorse he had penned gave the judge hope he could "turn your life around".

Wilson asked for three-monthly reports so he could personally monitor Miller's progress.

"If that progress causes me concern I'll have you along to court to speak to me about it," he said.