Andrew Robert Gillebaard sentenced after breaking into Better Health South Tamworth on Robert Street and starting small fire

Andrew Robert Gillebaard has been behind bars since his arrest on January 26 and fronted sentencing in Tamworth Local Court for the single charge of break and enter and destroy property.

His father was in court to support him.

Magistrate Julie Soars ordered him to spend another month in custody and made a compensation order of more than $28,800 to the surgery's insurance company.

Legal Aid solicitor Patricia Simpson submitted during a sentencing hearing that Gillebaard was facing personal health struggles at the time.

She said he had also been having difficulties with Better Health South Tamworth leading up to when he broke into the surgery and started a small fire on the morning of January 26.

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"The agreed facts reflect that these events occurred in the very early hours of the morning," she said.

She told the court there were bakers present and Gillebaard had possibly been "reckless" but did not intentionally put anyone at risk.

She accepted there was some level of planning due to Gillebaard packing the tools he needed to break into the clinic and to start the fire but said the practice was just a "vehicle" to achieve an outcome.

She said the fire was small and started on a medical trolley in a corner.

"Of course smoke damage and that sort of thing certainly increases the damage," she said.

She submitted the victim in the matter is an insurance company and Gillebaard was living on a pension, though said she couldn't speak against the invoices that had been filed with the court.

"It's a significant amount of money but that doesn't reflect the size of the fire," she said.

Ms Soars said compensation was largely out of her hands and she ordered the full amount to be paid.

Ms Simpson asked for the relatively large sum to be taken into account on sentence, and submitted there were special circumstances in the matter, which Ms Soars found.

The court head Gillebaard had suffered an onerous time in custody with COVID-19 scares and lockdowns.

Solicitor Madeleine Mulvaney from the state prosecuting authority, the DPP, submitted that there was a degree of "revenge almost" when he targeted Better Health in the Robert Street centre.

She said the cost of damaging medical equipment was high and there were "flow on effects" for patient care.

Ms Soars convicted him and sentenced him to 18 months in prison. He will be eligible for parole in November with time served.

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