A Serco guard bribed by inmates to bring contraband into Auckland's Mount Eden prison has been sentenced to home detention.

The former guard, Farani Junior Fa'apoi, appeared in the High Court at Auckland on Friday.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of corruption of an official for smuggling tobacco and cellphones into the jail.

The inmates, Duane Kiel, 46, and Travis Sadler, 38, were last week handed fresh sentences after also admitting to corruption of an official over the incidents in the then Serco-run Mount Eden Corrections Facility in May, 2015.

The court heard the men organised through Kiel's partner to deliver the goods to Fa'apoi in exchange for $1500, using a series of coded messages saying "donations" had been made to the "church", "prayers said, clothes folded" and describing the items as "laundry".

On Friday, Justice Geoffrey Venning accepted that because Fa'apoi's had found new employment, had no previous convictions and had not smuggled drugs that he was eligible for 12 months home detention.

But he warned Fa'apoi that he had been on a "knife edge" in terms of how close he was to being sentenced to a stint in prison.