Capital Football hall of famer Sebastian Giampaolo, 62, fronted the ACT Supreme Court for a sentence hearing on Thursday alongside relative Dominic Giampaolo, 24.

The two-time Australian representative and his nephew pleaded guilty to a combined 12 charges.

These comprised offences of using false documents to dishonestly influence public officials and causing false or misleading documents to be provided to a government department.

The crimes were committed over three years beginning in April 2015.

A statement of facts tendered to the court shows Sebastian Giampaolo is a director of a company called Elite Distributors, while Dominic Giampaolo is its "international imports officer".

The business buys, imports and distributes nutritional supplements, selling them online and in stores.

While it holds a number of permits to import different products, the facts show the company brought some fitness supplements into the country by failing to disclose them.

During the three-year offending period, Sebastian and Dominic Giampaolo gave false or misleading documents to a broker, knowing those documents would then be provided to the federal Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.

"As a result of [the pair's] conduct, the department approved the release of imports to Elite Distributors, in which various products would have otherwise not been released, had the correct information been provided," the facts state.

Sebastian Giampaolo's barrister, Steven Whybrow, on Thursday told the court the crimes were not committed for financial gain, with the motive merely "laziness and corner-cutting".

This prompted Justice John Burns to observe that the offenders seemed to think "it was going to take too much time and too much effort" to go through the proper processes.

Mr Whybrow went on to describe the offending as "ad hoc and quite unsophisticated", saying it had happened occasionally rather than every time the pair imported goods from overseas.

He said a sentence involving community service and criminal convictions, which would impact on his client's ability to do business, would be more appropriate than a jail term.

"This has brought great shame and embarrassment on [Sebastian Giampaolo] and his family," Mr Whybrow told the court, adding that the 62-year-old felt responsible for the situation his nephew now found himself in.

Ken Archer, a barrister representing Dominic Giampaolo, made similar submissions in relation to community service and criminal convictions being a desirable outcome.

He also drew attention to his client's youth, saying the man was only a teenager when the offending began and that there was "a difference in seniority, age and experience" between the offenders.

Mr Archer said the 24-year-old was "a person of considerable potential", community-minded and highly unlikely to reoffend.

"Imprisonment is not the only appropriate sentence that could be imposed in this case," he told the court.

Commonwealth prosecutor Haya Snobar argued, however, that the threshold for jail sentences had been crossed, though it may be appropriate for them to be suspended or community-based terms.

She described the crimes in question as "sustained and repeated".

"The offending seems to be passed off as laziness or cutting corners [but] the facts demonstrate that the offending was in fact calculated," she said.

Ms Snobar argued the Giampaolos must have understood the obligations placed on importers, otherwise they could not have devised a scheme to "circumvent" the law.

Justice Burns said he planned to sentence the men next Thursday morning.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: