Sir Ngatata Love has been sentenced to two years and six months in jail over a $1.7 million fraud involving a Wellington property development.

LISTEN ABOVE: Julie Read of the Serious Fraud Office spoke to Chris Lynch

Prosecutors had been calling for Love to spend up to five-and-a-half years behind bars after he was found guilty of obtaining property by deception in September, following a three-week trial.

But in sentencing submissions on Thursday Love's lawyer Colin Carruthers, QC, said medical experts warned prison would affect his physical wellbeing.

Love suffers from dementia and a heart condition.

He instead said home detention was the preferred sentence option, backed by Love's grandson Tyrone, who asked that he be allowed to return to his daughter's home to be cared for and rehabilitated by family who felt responsible for his crime.

The fraud occurred in 2006 and 2007 when Love, a Maori academic and Waitangi Treaty negotiator, was chairman of the Wellington Tenths Trust.

On their behalf he reached an agreement with developers about a site in Pipitea Street, Wellington which included a personal payment of $3 million that was not disclosed to the trust.

The funds were transferred into an account set up by Love's partner Lorraine Skiffington with the intention of using it to pay the mortgage on their Plimmerton foreshore home.

Charges against Skiffington have been permanently stayed because of her own health problems, while Ngatata Love's son, Matene Love, had already pleaded guilty to accepting a secret commission.

Justice Lang revealed in his findings after the trial that he believed Love's actions to be deceptive and dishonest.

"I am satisfied that Dr Love knew about all of those transactions and indeed that he was instrumental certainly in arranging the early transfers involving Pipitea Street Developments."

Justice Lang said in failing to tell his fellow trustees about the $3m payment he omitted to disclose information that he was duty-bound to reveal.

He said Love had "been at pains" to ensure the proposal for the money to be paid to PSD remained secret.

"The significance of the information that Dr Love omitted to disclose combined with the circumstances in which the omission occurred means it must have been deliberate," Justice Lang said.

Love was knighted by Prince Charles in 2009 though his prison sentence could mean he is stripped of his knighthood.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister John Key said this afternoon that he would not comment until Love had made a decision about whether to appeal his sentence.

Love was made a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009, for services to Maori.

When knighthoods were restored by the National-led Government, he accepted the opportunity to become a “Sir”.