Stacking up in piles on magistrates' desks are breaches of family violence intervention orders, which are put in place to protect victims when there are criminal charges involving allegations of family violence.

Family violence intervention orders have made up a substantial chunk of Magistrate Nanzio La Rosa's two-decade career in law, and this week in the Warrnambool Magistrates' Court was no different.

He described it as a "merry-go-round" of violence when perpetrators breached court orders.

"Family violence needs to be looked at very seriously," Mr La Rosa told one man, who was handed a 12-month intervention order for intentionally causing injury to a victim known to him.

"I've jailed more people than you can name for breaching an intervention order.

"I've been doing this just over 19 years and there are a lot of people in custody because I say they go there.

"You have to understand what family violence means, what behaviour you can engage in and what is regarded as behaviour that is family violence.

"If you don't the police will find out, you will be charged and could end up facing a term of imprisonment."

Another Warrnambool man pleaded guilty on Thursday to persistent breaches of an intervention order.

Despite the order, the accused proceeded to contact the victim, his former wife, through bank transfer statements.

On December 10, 2021, he made nine deposits into the victim's account of $1800 and attached to each was a message.

On December 21, he made 12 deposits totalling $2100 with more messages including "farmer wants wife", "gold digger", "watch the backfire", "you lose, I win".

The accused was arrested, charged and bailed and during the police interview made full admissions to sending the messages.

Lawyer Ian Pugh said the man was "very embarrassed" by the incidents and realised what he did was "totally inappropriate".

The man was ordered to appear in court on February 17 for a further plea and sentencing.

"I take it he's not a fool, he's not an idiot, yet he thinks it's appropriate - and I use the very vulgar term - to slag his former wife.

"I know if I convict him he can kiss goodbye to his contracts and I'm not interested in whether he keeps his job or not.

"When the court makes an order that says don't do 'X', 'Y' and 'Z' that is what the court expects people to do.

"There are consequences and if it means he's unemployable, who cares? Not me.

"I don't regard this as the upper end of family violence, but it's stupid, unnecessary behaviour which causes the court to wonder if he will listen."

Another man, 45, of Portland, was ordered to reside more than 250 kilometres away in Greenvale with his mother after breaching an intervention order put in place after he punched his partner in the head in their Portland home on August 20, 2021.

An interim order was put in place the next day and served in full on December 16, 2021.

On September 1 and 2 the man is alleged to have contacted the victim via text, and on January 12, 2022, he attended her address where she locked herself and her two children in her bedroom out of fear.

He was arrested and made full admission to the allegations.

He was bailed to appear in Portland Magistrates' Court on June 7.

Magistrate La Rosa said the victim "must feel like she's on a merry-go-round."

"Don't take me for a fool, I have no issue sentencing you - I go to bed and I won't lose sleep, you will," Mr La Rosa said. "If I refuse you bail I won't lose sleep. If I say to you do not breach the conditions of the order, I mean it.

"I don't suffer fools all that lightly which means if you breach my bail, I can tell you what the outcome would be: not favourable.

"If the applicant were to breach bail, any confidence the court can have would vanish, and the court would have no option but to allow him to make application in custody in the Supreme Court because bail would be refused."

It comes as the south-west recently reported a disturbing jump in breaches of family violence intervention orders.

The 2020-21 Victorian Family Violence Database released by the Crime Statistics Agency two weeks ago found the number of reported breached spiked 62 per cent in the south-west.

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