Harley Stott jailed over drive-by shooting, arson

He was also jailed for his role in trying to traffic drugs into the Alexander Maconochie Centre while on remand.

Early in the morning on February 2, 2015, Stott, 24, was riding in the back seat of gold Subaru WRX when someone in the front seat unloaded five rounds into a house in Gowrie, the court heard.

There were five people inside, including two children, and a bullet hit a woman's stomach but the injury wasn't serious.

The court heard someone had stolen Stott's friend's jewellery and a woman at the Gowrie house was holding it for payment of a drug debt.

The friend enlisted Stott to help get the jewellery back.

Sentencing judge Hilary Penfold said Stott had "unnecessarily" involved himself in a friend's dispute.

He later drove the Subaru to a field in the bush and doused it in petrol before setting it and the rifle alight with a cigarette lighter.

Stott was arrested in February 2015 for unrelated offences.

In May 2015 while in custody awaiting sentence he conspired to traffic drugs into the jail using a phone that had been smuggled in.

He pleaded guilty to arson, being involved in the use of an offensive weapon in an act endangering life, and drug trafficking.

Justice Penfold sentenced Stott to a total of five years and two months imprisonment, backdating the sentence to January 2016.

She noted the prevalence of drive-by shootings in Canberra and "the community concern caused by them generates the need to send a strong message to other potential offenders."

She noted too that the prosecutor said the arson was committed in a rural area in the height of bushfire season and carried the risk of starting a serious bushfire.

But the judge set a low non-parole period of two years and seven months, "in recognition of your youth, your wish to complete a residential rehabilitation program after your release and your achievements so far in dealing with your drug habits."

He will be eligible for parole in August 2018.