A jury last year found Steven Thompson, 39, guilty of aggravated robbery, burglary, unlawful confinement, theft, and taking a motor vehicle without consent for a string of crimes that took place in less than 24 hours in December 2014.

Thompson was on parole for earlier crimes when he met the woman in the lead up to Christmas Day and they spent several days together consuming the drug ice at her Richardson home.

The woman gave evidence at trial that she saw Thompson on her neighbour's property, passing goods back over the fence, the day of the attack.

She said he then put the goods in her car, and the pair later drove to a unit that belonged to Thompson's friend.

Police were later called to the neighbour's house and discovered it had been ransacked.

While the pair was at the unit, Thompson held a knife to the woman's throat and demanded she hand over her handbag and take off her jewellery, which included gold and diamond rings and a bracelet.

The woman gave evidence at trial that Thompson also threatened to hurt her daughter.

"He said he'd rip my daughter's eyes out and that I could dig the hole that she was going in," she said.

He then forced her to sit facing a wall and when she asked to leave to see her daughter, he laughed and refused to let her go.

Thompson also took $900 from the woman's wallet and forced her to sign over her car to him during the ordeal.

They later left the unit and drove to Richardson, where Thompson stopped the car and made the woman get out.

She reported the incident to police, who arrested Thompson the next month.

The woman wrote in a victim impact statement previously read in court that she continued to experience fear and flashbacks of the attack, which she claimed exacerbated her anxiety and had a serious impact on her social life.

In sentencing Thompson in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Hilary Penfold noted he continued to deny his actions and had offered no explanation for his offending.

He had also expressed no intention of seeking help for his ongoing drug use and Ms Penfold said she had little faith in his prospects of rehabilitation.

The court heard he had a difficult childhood and had claimed he'd become institutionalised due to years spent in and out of jail due to his "extensive" criminal history.

But Justice Penfold said that did not entitle Thompson to leniency in sentencing and was not "a kind of get out of jail free card for a repeat offender".

She sentenced Thompson to five years behind bars for the offences, backdated to take into account time already spent in custody.

He will be eligible for release in May 2018.

The judge told Thompson that non-parole period should give him time to seek rehabilitation and help for institutionalisation while in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

"You claim you have become institutionalised and that may be true," Justice Penfold said.

"However, you need to think about what you're going to do about it because no-one's going to do it for you."

Justice Penfold said if Thompson wanted to see a future for himself outside prison he needed to use the next two years in jail to set himself up for life outside by building practical skills and addressing his drug problems, violent tendencies and abuse suffered in childhood.

"It's all up to you now, Mr Thompson," Justice Penfold said.