The accomplice of a man shot dead by police while burgling the New Plymouth Golf Club has been sent to jail.

Kevin Bishell has been sentenced in the High Court in New Plymouth to four years and eight months imprisonment.

The 34-year-old pleaded guilty to burgling both the golf club and Chipmunks playcentre with Adam Morehu in June last year.

He also admits to wearing a crash helmet and robbing Treehouse bar staff at gunpoint in the early hours of Christmas morning two years ago.

The judge accepts Bishell was a bit of a tag-along in Morehu's criminal escapades, but says the offending's still serious and he's left his victims scarred.