Ben Rachinger blew the whistle on Cameron Slater, claiming the blogger offered him money to hack a rival site.

A former associate of Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater has admitted deceptively obtaining $1000 from him by falsely promising he would hack a pro-Labour blog.

Benjamin Rachinger, 28, appeared in the Manukau District Court on Monday for what was supposed to be his judge-alone trial on a charge of obtaining money from Slater.

Instead Rachinger pleaded guilty to the charge and a sentencing date was set for March next year.

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater admitted to hiring Rachinger.

Rachinger was defending himself.

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Earlier this year Slater completed diversion after admitting he hired Rachinger, an IT worker, to break into The Standard blog site.

No hack actually took place.

The charges against the pair came after Rachinger made public claims in January 2015 that he had been paid to hack The Standard, sparking a police investigation.

Rachinger previously told TV3's The Nation that Slater had asked him to retrieve information from The Standard, including who its anonymous contributors were, their email addresses, and IP addresses for future hacking.

The Standard is a left-wing blog site run by editor Lynn Prentice, while Slater is infamous for his right-wing site Whale Oil.

The charge of obtaining by deception carries a maximum penalty of one year's jail.