Garry Lee Fullerton, 63, was sentenced in the Hobart Supreme Court on Friday to five years and nine months' jail, with a non-parole period of three years and five months, after he pleaded guilty to several dishonesty offences.

Justice Gregory Geason said over four years, between June 2014 and April 2018, Fullerton used 19 different aliases to attempt to gain credit cards or lines of credit from financial institutions.

Justice Geason said Fullerton was successful on 21 occasions, gaining a financial advantage of $346,035, and he had also gained access to several credit cards with an available limit of $78,000.

He was unsuccessful on 36 occasions where he attempted to gain an additional $766,827.

The court heard Fullerton would use falsified bank statements, drivers' licences, Medicare cards, birth certificates and other documents to apply for credit or loans.

He would use residential addresses where he did not live for these applications but rerouted the mail to four post boxes in Launceston to which he had access.

Fullerton first came to the attention of police in August 2016 but he was not arrested and remanded into custody until 2018, shortly after he had suffered a heart attack which left him on life support.

Fullerton checked himself out of hospital against medical advice and was arrested a short time later at a hotel near his home.

The court heard despite accumulating these funds through false means, Fullerton now possessed little of it having spent it on consumables such as alcohol, accommodation and withdrawing it as cash to purchase drugs.

Justice Geason said Fullerton had become estranged from his family and began abusing alcohol and drugs after allegedly being the victim of sexual abuse as a child.

"Your habit of going by an assumed name began at a young age for those reasons," Justice Geason told Fullerton.

"I do have an impression based on the extent of your offending [that] you get personal satisfaction from the challenge of engaging with these institutions [to gain profit].

"Your crimes required careful planning and diligent execution. This was a sophisticated course of conduct."

Justice Geason said because Fullerton had refused to undergo a psychological evaluation he was unable to further understand the drivers behind the offending.

The court heard from the early 1990s Fullerton had previously committed similar fraud offences in Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand, and he spent time in prison in all three jurisdictions.

In New Zealand, he accumulated $550,000 in mortgages, $38,000 in credit cards and $42,000 through GST fraud.

In 2006, the New Zealand Herald reported Fullerton's lawyer at the time had compared him with the conman played by Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie Catch Me If You Can.

In sentencing, Justice Geason said he took into account as mitigating factors Fullerton's poor health, his age and his plea of guilty.

Justice Geason said, while he acknowledged this type of crime could be done remotely, he accepted Fullerton was less likely to re-offend given his health had deteriorated and he spent 23 hours a day in bed, sleeping for 16 or 17 hours a day.