David Woodbury sentenced in Tamworth court for using a gun to rob man of pokie winnings in Gunnedah in 2021

David Woodbury showed no emotion as he was sentenced in Tamworth District Court for robbing a man in his Gunnedah home last year, with a second offender wielding a knife.

Judge Andrew Coleman said what was meant to "be a night out at the pub with a win on the pokies" for the victim "ended up in a violent attack in his home where he was threatened with weapons".

Woodbury was staring down the barrel of up to 25 years' imprisonment for the offence of armed robbery with a dangerous weapon in company, but was given a 25 per cent discount for his early guilty plea.

Judge Coleman said Woodbury's role was most serious because he was first in the home, "and had the gun held to [the victim's] head ... and threatened to kill him on multiple occasions".

Woodbury appeared via video link in court from prison in Sydney, where he's been since he was arrested by Oxley police on September 17, 2021.

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Defence solicitor Geoff Archer said his client's record was not one of "a great deal of concern," but there was a "limited amount of planning involved, there was some planning" in the attack.

Mr Archer said the assault to the second victim was a one-punch offence of "a punch to the mouth of the victim", but his client had a long-term issue with illicit drugs.

"It was a violent attack where he threatened to kill him several times ... over some pokie money," Judge Coleman said.

The offences stem back to the night of September 16 last year.

The victim, who watched the sentencing proceedings in court, went to a Gunnedah hotel on the night in question, and it all unravelled from there.

"The presence of the gun is a troubling thing ... and the manner in which he used it," Judge Coleman said.

He said the one-punch was "an unprovoked attack" on the victim's friend in the same home.

He said the robbery "must have been a terrifying experience" with the "intensity of [the] threat", as well as "the use of force".

He told the court "there was a degree of planning ... by multiple offenders" because they saw the victim win money on the pokies then broke into his house off Conadilly Street, and later returned with the gun.

Woodbury told a medical specialist that he was on ice at the time and that "his partner at the time had put it in his head".

The robbery was done with the sole motivation to buy more ice, the court heard.

Judge Coleman said that although he might have been "led into it by his girlfriend", "the execution and nature of his attack was led by him".

He was jailed for a maximum of four years and four months, and will have to serve two years and 10 months behind bars before he is eligible for parole.

After time served, Woodbury could be released in July 2024.

He was convicted without further penalty for possessing a stick of cannabis.

Co-accused Jai Nelson was sentenced to three years with a minimum of two years non-parole for wielding the knife during the armed robbery in company.

Woodbury's then girlfriend Marie Foran, or Wanless as she is known, was sentenced in the local court to an intensive corrections order in the community with 100 hours of community service for being an accessory before the fact to armed robbery in company, as well as hindering the discovering of evidence.

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