(TheGuardian) - A Barossa Valley winemaker, who destroyed 27,000 litres of shiraz and chardonnay at a rival company, has been given a suspended jail sentence.

In February 2015, Trevor David Jones went to Kellermeister Wines at Lyndoch and opened valves to drain wine worth almost $300,000 from four of the company’s tanks.

Sentencing Jones in the district court in Adelaide on Thursday, Judge Jane Schammer jailed him for three years and seven months with a non-parole period of 18 months. But she suspended both terms, placing him on a two-year good behaviour bond.

Schammer said the 60-year-old’s offending was sparked by a breakdown in the relationship with his father, who had previously owned the winery.

Jones had also worked at Kellermeister as a winemaker before being sacked in 2010.

When he found out that his father had sold the business, his pre-existing mental health issues escalated and sparked his offending, the court heard.