War medals were among thousands-of-dollars worth of jewellery and electronics stolen by a serial thief during a northside burglary last year.
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Police identified Marshall James Steen as the culprit through blood he left at scene after he cut his hand on broken glass.
Court documents said the defence force service medals and other property stolen – which was worth about $4830 – has not been recovered.
Steen, 52, pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court to burglary and theft for the raid in June last year.
Court documents said Steen had forced entry to a Lyneham flat on June 29.
He then searched a bedroom, stealing property worth about $4830, including the service medals, electronics, jewellery, luggage set, and fishing tackle box.
But Steen accidently disturbed an occupant of the flat when he walked into the man's room.
Steen immediately closed the door and left, leaving the man to call police.
The court heard the victims had sought a reparation order for the stolen property, which had never been recovered.
Steen has a long criminal history which had seen him spend about 30 years of his life behind bars in Queensland, NSW, and the ACT.
He spent 11 years in Brisbane's notorious Boggo Road jail, which included a 28-month stretch in solitary confinement in an underground cell.
Steen is currently serving consecutive jail sentences for a series of other unrelated burglary and theft offences.
Under the current sentence, he was to be eligible for release on July 24, 2017.
But the court heard Justice Richard Refshauge must now configure the sentences in order to take the Ainslie burglary and theft into account.
The court heard Steen had a long-term heroin addiction, with his criminal offending coinciding with his first use of the drug.
Defence lawyer Soraya Saikal said her client had used methadone for about seven years to combat the addiction, and had successful weaned himself off the substitute drug.
Ms Saikal said the difficult process had caused Steen to be unwell, but he had been clean for about six weeks.
The defence lawyer said her client was ashamed to still be in jail at his age and still making the same mistakes.
But Ms Saikal said he had significant insight into his situation and was now focused on returning to his family in Queensland.
Justice Refshauge will hand down a sentence next month.
