Tyson James Booby and Joshua Ty Tehoata jailed for up to nine years for shooting at Tamworth police in wild chase

The graphic details of the wild crime spree that played out across the city were laid bare in Tamworth District Court on Wednesday as Tyson James Booby and Joshua Ty Tehoata were jailed for their failed bid to outrun police.

Booby, now 24, was sentenced to nine years behind bars, while Tehoata, now 30, was jailed for seven years after they had three "illegal and deadly" shortened firearms in the Ford Territory which Tehoata used to lean out of the car and fire at officers who chased them.

The dramatic chase started in Tamworth on May 15 last year and saw the police car struck by gunfire multiple times, while "dashcam from the police vehicle ... captures a bullet ricocheting off".

Judge Andrew Coleman said police were "doing their best to prevent what ... could have been a catastrophe".

Judge Coleman detailed how the police officer yelled "that's a gun" several times as Tehoata pointed at officers multiple times as they swerved to take cover to avoid being hit.

The court heard police received evidence that Booby was headed to Armidale to pick up the guns and that he doesn't "go nowhere without my tools".

Police in Tamworth intercepted the car after it left McDonald's in East Tamworth and noticed a broken headlight, but Booby had other plans and took off when police tried to pull them over.

About 2.45am the chase along Calala Lane was initiated, and continued for 33 minutes through the CBD, South, West and North Tamworth, Calala, Nemingha and Kootingal.

Throughout the chase, Tehoata chucked several missiles including a burning cannister with a wick at police to stop them, while Booby crossed to the wrong side of the road several times, swerved harshly and was clocked at 150km per hour at some points.

He went through a red light, through three roundabouts on the wrong side of the road, and even travelled for minutes down Goonoo Goonoo Road on the opposite side to try and get police off his back.

It eventually ended when Booby crashed the out-of-control Ford through the fence of the Tamworth Golf Course.

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The pair - who are being housed in Shortland and Clarence correctional centres - showed no emotion as their sentences were handed down.

The officers who were chasing the pair - including those that had to take cover - were seated in court as the details of the dramatic chase were laid bare.

Judge Coleman said the "shots were aimed at police" and the "gun was fired in a residential area" on "several occasions" with witnesses who woke to the sirens and feared they could be shot.

He detailed the "extremely risky and dangerous" chase and said Booby and Tehoata showed "a callous and criminal disregard to the safety" of the community and the police officers.

"[It was ] nothing but sheer luck that no one was killed or injured," he said.

He said police were "simply performing their jobs".

Both were found with knives on them, among other things, when they were forced onto the ground on the Tamworth Golf Course.

When questioned after their arrest, Booby said he'd used drugs, "had obviously blacked out", and had no knowledge of the spree, denying there were guns in the car.

Tehoata told police "he was seriously drug-affected and stressed" after using ice and cannabis, and admitted to the firearms in the car but said they were to "shoot roos".

Three shortened firearms as well as a silencer and ammunition were found in the car.

When police raided Tehoata's Glen Innes base after the spree they uncovered a homemade taser and various firearm parts.

Judge Coleman dismissed defence submissions that the pair's addictions to drugs, or state of mind, was a mitigating factor in the seriousness of the offending.

He acknowledged the pair both had troubled events throughout their upbringings, but he could not find that their mental health "contributed in a material way" to their moral culpability.

The court was told both men had shown remorse for their offending, and were on parole at the time.

He said Tehoata was a "damaged and vulnerable individual", while Booby's criminal history was "disturbingly long" for his age and had spent much of his adult life in jail after a "steady descent into his life of addiction and crime".

He said Booby's offending wasn't an aberration, or one-off, but rather a "continuing attitude of disobedience to the law".

Booby was sentenced to nine years behind bars. He will spend at least six years in custody before he's eligible for parole in April 2028, after time served.

Tehoata was jailed for seven years. He will have to serve four years and 10 months before he's eligible for parole. After time served, he could be released in August 2026.

The pair were given a 25 per cent discount for their early guilty pleas to charges of discharging a firearm with intent to resist arrest, as well as possessing shortened firearms. A string of other weapons charges were also taken into account in sentencing.

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