The national president of the Mongols Motorcycle Club has been sentenced to seven months jail after he lit a fire in his prison cell as a form of protest.

Jim David Thacker, 33, was sentenced in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday, with the extra months to be served concurrently on top of his already long prison spell.

In August, Thacker was jailed for 22 years and four months when he appeared in the High Court in Hamilton.

The gang leader was jailed on 53 charges including possession of methamphetamine for supply, supplying methamphetamine, possession of prohibited firearms, discharging firearms with reckless disregard, money laundering, and participation in an organised criminal group.

On Wednesday, Thacker pleaded guilty to one charge of arson after lighting a fire on the night of April 22, 2021.

The gang leader was alone in his cell around 9:30pm, when he started the fire in the corner of the room, according to Judge Simon Lance.

Prison officers noticed the smell and saw the smoke through an observation point, he said.

A fire extinguisher was used, and the incident was over fairly quickly.

When deciding on the length of sentence, Judge Lance took into consideration the guilty plea, the mental health impact caused by solitary imprisonment and the fact that the fire was started more as a way of protest than ‘a desire to hurt anybody or cause significant property damage’.

“To me, this seemed pretty low end.”

The fire caused minimal damage, but Lance recognised the Crown’s argument that there was still a risk that the fire could have spread and damaged neighbouring cells, which were occupied.

There was a large police presence at the sentencing on Wednesday, with several officers outside the courtroom and many inside for ‘security purposes’.

Thacker was deported to New Zealand from Australia - where he had lived since he was 4-years-old in August 2018, under the controversial “501” legislation.

He had come to the attention of Australian police through, among other things, a peripheral role in the notorious 2013 gang riot in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast.

He had previously told the court his mental health was suffering and that he wanted more phone calls with family.

That request was refused.

-Stuff.