Michael Edward Farley, 42, Sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on breaching his home detention, and two charges laid under the Passport Act relating to getting a false passport to flee NZ.

Five years after fleeing New Zealand to avoid a jail term, Manawatu man Michael Edward Farley is back where he should have been – behind bars.

Farley's tale has its beginnings in 2010, but the six years since have been extremely turbulent for him.

They included getting a friend to beat up a witness to a crime he committed, a methamphetamine-fuelled Molotov cocktail attack on the witness's house, and Farley cutting off his home detention anklet and escaping to Canada on a false passport he obtained thanks to his vulnerable brother.

DAVID UNWIN/STUFF Michael Edward Farley cut off his home detention anklet and used a false passport to flee to Canada.

But his escape was foiled after he abducted a prostitute and was jailed in Canada. He was deported in 2015.

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Farley was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on Friday to seven years' imprisonment for perverting the course of justice, obtaining and using a false passport, and breaching home detention.

MURRAY WILSON/ FAIRFAX NZ Kevin Farley signed the witness statement which helped his brother get a false passport.

At his sentencing the court heard that in March 2010, a couple in Bunnythorpe called police after they saw suspicious activity on their neighbour's property.

Farley was charged with unlawfully being in that property, but took things into his own hands to get off the charge.

He arranged to have an associate, Phoebe O'Donoghue​, assault one of the witnesses at the Bunnythorpe Tavern in April 2010, in an attempt to dissuade them from giving evidence.

But when the witness was not at the tavern, O'Donoghue, high on methamphetamine, threw Molotov cocktails into the witness' family home while he, his wife and three children slept inside.

Farley went to Napier to create an alibi, but eventually confessed to police and told them about O'Donoghue's involvement.

While awaiting sentencing for the perverting charge, he was on home detention for receiving stolen property.

He cut off his monitoring anklet in July 2011 – with one day left on his home detention sentence – and used a false passport to make his way to Canada via Australia and Los Angeles.

He got the passport under a different name, largely thanks to his brother Kevin signing a witness statement for him.

Farley appeared to have made a clean break, but came to the attention of New Zealand authorities when he was imprisoned for 22 months in Canada for abducting a prostitute before being deported.

The man who had his home torched in 2010 was in court on Friday for Farley's sentencing, and visibly shook as he glared at Farley after reading his victim impact statement.

"Do you feel you have achieved anything? Do you think your daughters are proud of you?

"Or do they look away when you show up on the TV or in the newspaper?"

The man's wife said she believed she had done the right thing when reporting the suspicious activity.

"Little did I know, I would live to regret that call for the rest of my life."

The arson led to her losing feeling from the neck down - a symptom of her chronic post-traumatic stress - and having to give up her employment.

Judge Stephanie Edwards said perverting the course of justice could have the "chilling effect" of stopping witnesses to crime from coming forward.

Any credit Farley got from helping police find O'Donoghue was negated by his flight to Canada.

"You caused [your victims] additional stress and concern from not knowing where you were, or whether or not they were safe," the judge said.