When pensioner Samuel Sutton was given a suspended sentence for possessing child abuse photos, it was with conditions.
But the next month he was found to have breached one by having a facility to clean his computer's history.
Sutton, 78, of Northfield House in St Catherine Mead Street, Southville, pleaded guilty to breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) in September last year.
Judge Julian Lambert made the suspended sentence more onerous with a two-year community order with rehabilitation.
He told Sutton it was the specified requirements of the SHPO that had spared him from immediate custody, and he must adhere to it.
Sutton was ordered to pay £250 prosecution costs.
Gregory Gordon, prosecuting via video link due to coronavirus lockdown, told Bristol Crown Court Sutton was handed an eight month prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, for possessing indecent images of children.
But just weeks after his offender manager visited him and found he had been using a cleaner device to delete his computer history.
Sutton accepted it was wrong, said he had not thought about what he was doing and it was simply a habit to clean out data from his device.
Giles Tippett, defending, said: "He used a cleaner to close down his computer.
"The order had been in place for a short time.
"He did not think with regard to the use of that programme."
Mr Tippett said Sutton was not in contact with his family but was becoming willing to explore the triggers that had led to his offending.
