A GETAWAY driver who helped plan and carry out a "traumatic" robbery with a gun and a meat cleaver at a Hunter pub has been jailed for four years.
Jade Allan Thompson was sentenced in Newcastle District Court on Friday for his role in stealing more than $3000 from the tills at the Iron Horse Inn at Cardiff in January 2022.
The 34-year-old had pleaded guilty to robbery armed with a dangerous weapon.
Judge Roy Ellis ordered Thompson to spend four years behind bars, with a non-parole period of two years and four months.
He will be eligible for release in August this year after time served since his arrest on January 25, 2022.
Thompson said he'd been an ice addict for years and it was only once he got clean in jail that he understood how serious his offending was.
"I couldn't believe what I actually done, I was shattered," he said.
"I've always craved ice and now I've turned on it, I hate it, I despise it, I don't like it at all.
"I'm over it, I've grown out of it ... I broke my mother's heart."
Thompson was supported by family members in court.
He had earlier denied the allegations levelled against him but said he was sick of blaming other people.
"I never take responsibility for my own actions ... I did it, I stuffed up," he said.
His defence barrister handed up written submissions which detailed Thompson's troubled background, letters of support for him and how he had up-skilled himself in jail through training.
"I've got to go straight into a routine the minute I get out," Thompson told the court.
"I'm so mentally stable, it's very good."
The court heard Thompson had picked up two men in his car and driven them to the Cardiff pub in the early hours of the morning.
The two men went inside wielding a pistol and a meat cleaver.
The two young women working at the time saw the intruders - who had disguised their faces - and escaped to a secure area.
The men jumped the bar and took a little more than $3000 cash from the tills before fleeing in Thompson's car.
The court heard .22 bullets were found in Thompson's car, a silencer was discovered in his bedroom and he had about a third of the stolen money in his possession.
Judge Ellis said he could not determine whether the pistol the men were armed with was a real firearm or a replica.
"It would have been pretty traumatic," he said.
"Such a victim is working on the basis it is a real gun and it is loaded."
Judge Ellis said there was an element of planning to the armed robbery but it was not to an "Ocean's 11" level.
He told Thompson his prospects of rehabilitation were better now than they had ever been before.
"This is an excellent opportunity for you to turn things around in your life," he said.
Thompson's criminal history involved a significant number of traffic offences, and he described driving as "another addiction".
Judge Ellis warned him to keep out of the driver's seat.
"If you don't do that, you might as well drive straight back to Cessnock," he said.
