A standover man who has been compared to the Incredible Hulk has shaved six months from his minimum jail time after winning an appeal against his sentence.
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But Christopher John Butler lost his battle to overturn his conviction for threatening a Fyshwick businessman over a $60,000 debt in 2011.
Butler - described by the businessman's wife as ''looking like the Incredible Hulk, only not green'' - repeatedly appeared at the victim's business, asking to see him.
The victim's wife set up a covert camera to record the conversation when the pair finally met face-to-face.
Butler told him he had been sent by ''the boss'', a mysterious figure from Sydney who had bought the debt owed by the victim.
He said he was ''the first step and I'm the very polite step'', and was sent because he was good with people and good with words.
But he warned ''if [my boss] sends a guy who's 6-foot-7 and 165 kilograms named Junior, run''.
The victim said, ''You're telling me, basically, it's $60,000 or my life'', to which Butler replied: ''Hopefully, it won't come down to that, but it could come down to that.''
Butler also said his boss had heard plenty of stories about why people couldn't pay a debt, but said they were suddenly able to come up with the money when ''they go around and cut his hand off or break his leg''.
The 34-year-old was found guilty in a judge-alone trial by Acting Justice John Nield last year, and was sentenced to three years' jail, with an 18-month non-parole period.
Butler's lawyers appealed against the conviction and sentence.
That appeal was heard by the full bench of the ACT Court of Appeal on Monday. It rejected the appeal against conviction, but upheld the appeal against sentence.
The court found that Justice Nield had erred in finding Butler had made veiled threats to the victim's wife and children.
In the recorded conversation, Butler had told the man that his boss would never hurt the victim's wife or children.
The Court of Appeal found the lack of a threat to the wife and children could not be taken as a threat itself.
The court also found that Justice Nield had incorrectly assessed Butler's prospects for rehabilitation and his likelihood of reoffending.
It found that Butler had not believed he was acting unlawfully at the time, meaning his likelihood of repeating similar offences in the future was reduced.
The court reduced his non-parole period from 18 months to 12 months, meaning he will be eligible for release in next March.
