Corey Wallace confessed to driving Illawarra Brother 4 Life associate Richard Dutton to the police station on the evening of January 4 and waiting while Dutton got out of the car holding a shortened .22 shotgun and fired it once into the air.

Dutton then put the gun back into the car and walked into the police station to give himself up while Wallace drove away from the scene.

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It is not suggested Wallace knew Dutton was in possession of a gun prior to the shooting or that he knew a shooting was to take place.

Wallace later told police he "panicked" after the shot had been fired and drove off, returning the gun to a house in Wollongong where it was seized by one of the home's occupants.

Wallace was charged in October with being an accessory after the fact to discharging a firearm in a public place.

In court on Friday, Wallace's lawyer said his client had only met Dutton three days prior to the incident and thought he was driving him to the police station so officers could speak to him about a "domestic situation".

He said Wallace had no criminal record and was an "otherwise hard-working, law-abiding citizen" who had made a "terrible mistake in the heat of the moment".

Magistrate Mark Douglass handed Wallace a nine month intensive corrections order. Dutton was previously sentenced to two years jail over the incident.