The Sydney crime gang associate who set fire to internet personality Jordan Shanks' home in 2022 has said he would "rather die than go back to jail" before being sentenced to five years behind bars.

Tufi Junior Tauese-Auelua, 39, was jailed in the Coffs Harbour District Court on Monday after pleading guilty to the 2022 firebombing.

After pleading guilty to a violent bashing and the attack on Mr Shanks' Bondi home three years ago, the court was told he was hired "as some kind of muscle".

Recounting Tauese-Auelua's violent childhood, his barrister Alex Cassels said the was still "a little boy in a very large body".

Police alleged Tauese-Auelua was an associate of the Alameddine crime family and scouted out the home before setting it ablaze about midnight on November 23, 2022.

Mr Shanks,

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