A MAN has avoided spending time behind bars after pointing a loaded rifle towards volunteer firefighters in an effort to make them "f*** off" and "see who they were" through the gun's scope.
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Michael Stephen Finch, 42, was sentenced in Tamworth Local Court to a 12-month intensive corrections order - a custodial sentence in the community - which will expire in March next year.
He must also do 40 hours of community service and make an appointment for a health review after pleading guilty to charges of carrying a firearm in a manner likely to injure someone and common assault.
He was slapped with 12-month good behaviour orders for three charges of not keeping a firearm safely, after police found three guns inside his unlocked Holden Commodore on the outskirts of Tamworth.
Eight other common assault charges were listed as further offences by the prosecution.
The court previously heard Finch himself was a volunteer with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) but was not on duty on the morning of April 24 last year.
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Police facts show officers were called to a property near Appleby after reports a man had aimed a rifle at a group of RFS workers.
Eight fully marked RFS vehicles - including trucks and four-wheel-drives - and 20 firefighters from Tamworth, Moore Creek and Attunga were in the area to carry out a controlled backburn near the property.
The facts show one volunteer described fearing for his life after Finch lifted a Browning .308 rifle and pointed it towards the group twice, while they were parked about 50 metres away, and again after the alarm had been raised and they were driving away.
Several firefighters claimed they "felt threatened" and "feared being shot".
The facts show Finch told police he was trying to see who they were and that the group should have known who he was.
"As soon as I pulled it out, they all left, achieved what I wanted them to do, I wanted them to f*** off," police claim Finch told them at the time.
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