The man, who The Courier cannot name due to a suppression order, pleaded guilty to one charge of encouraging a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Giles Brown said New South Wales police were conducting proactive investigations on a chat website in May 2019.

The accused engaged in a chat with the investigators who were identifying themselves online as a 13-year-old girl on May 23, 2019.

The accused identified himself online as an 18-year-old male and indicated he wanted to engage in sexual activity with the girl.

The chat moved across to Skype and the accused continued to send explicit sexualised comments.

The court heard the conversation continued until June 5, but the sexualised conduct was restricted to May 23.

The accused's account was listed in a different name, but police uncovered his true identity through checks of his IP address.

Police officers in Ballarat executed a search warrant at his family home while his wife and two young daughters were present.

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Senior Constable Brown said the accused made full admissions to police and showed remorse.

He told police he was in a 'bad place' and he did not know why he did it.

He said he had been married more than 10 years but the last few years was just 'going through the motions', his business was failing and he had been working in other employment more than 70 hours a week.

The accused told police he 'never would have acted on it'.

Defence lawyer Adrian Paull said the accused did not know he was chatting with a police operative until police searched his home in January.

He said the accused stopped sending chats in June, recognising he needed to end the conversation.

Mr Paull asked the magistrate to consider sentencing the accused to a community corrections order.

"This is a man who is highly unlikely to ever come back before the criminal justice system," he said.

"He has clearly made a very grave error of judgement at this time."

Mr Paull said the accused's family was not aware of the detail of his offending, but knew it was an inappropriate conversation online.

"He recognises this could be the end of his marriage and he also recognises he probably won't be employed any longer," he said.

Mr Paull said the accused had started his own business that was failing so he was working in other employment 70 to 80 hours a week to keep his mortgage under control.

He said he was diagnosed with mixed anxiety and depression order and had no real relationship with his wife at this time.

"It is something of a perfect storm of circumstances for someone who is otherwise a law abiding man," Mr Paull said.

"This has been hanging over him since January 2020. The potential impact this has on his family and life has a strong deterrent effect."

Senior Constable Brown said the accused would be placed on the sex offender's registry for eight years.

"While it wasn't a real 13-year-old girl it potentially could have been," he said.

Magistrate Letizia Torres said she would have the accused assessed for a community corrections order but she needed more time to consider sentencing.

"It is too significant a matter for me to make a decision on the spot," she said.

"The uncertainty for you continues," she said to the accused. "But that is the situation we are in."

The accused will return to court in May for sentencing.

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