A serial criminal could be at "the end of the road" if he does not receive a drug and treatment order, the ACT Supreme Court has heard.
"He either commits to change or he spends the next 40 years the same way he spent the first 40," defence lawyer Tamzin Lee said on Tuesday.
Ms Lee's client, Guy Pearson Roberts, 43, was facing court after pleading guilty to several charges, including arson and multiple counts of aggravated burglary and theft.
"You're frightening me with the task," Acting Justice Richard Refshauge said, responding to Ms Lee's request for the community-based order.
Agreed facts state that Roberts and co-offender Carla Lee Sebbens, 46, tried in the early hours of November 10, 2021, to force open the bolded door of Prohibition Bottle Shop in Curtin using a snatch strap and a stolen car.
After two unsuccessful attempts, Roberts also unsuccessfully tried to "smash the front doors" using a block splitter, all of which was captured on closed-circuit television.
Later that day, the pair was again caught on camera burgling a Phillip apartment and stealing multiple items, including a laptop.
The facts outline more incidents of aggravated burglary, theft and driving a stolen car the same month.
Roberts also pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory after the fact to aggravated robbery.
It is agreed he helped an armed man, who had attempted to steal a Mercedes, flee the scene on December 12, 2021.
Roberts was unaware the man was going to attempt the robbery or use a gun in the process.
Ms Lee said the offending was clearly "drug-seeking" and while it was "not excusable, not lawful", it was also "not violent".
"It is the drug use that most directly correlates to the offending behaviour," she said.
"This is the place where that drug use can be addressed."
The court heard Roberts had faced a particularly traumatic childhood, first being exposed to drugs at 11. He was using heroin at 13 and progressed to methamphetamine in 2016.
Agreed facts concerning another incident state that Roberts, on April 4, 2022, started a fire while he was an inmate at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
He did so using an item he concealed in his pants, then sparked using his mouth while handcuffed to a wall.
Roberts then fanned the flames by dragging clothing, a cardboard box and a chair onto them.
Ms Lee asked the judge to consider the human context of the arson offence, which she said Roberts committed out of frustration at being unable to contact his family.
"Starting a fire is somewhat probably at the more extreme end of those legitimate responses," Acting Justice Refshauge said.
He said the frustration was perhaps "humanly understandable, not legally".
Ms Lee said her client had "been set up to fail repeatedly by the criminal justice system" and he had never been given the opportunity of a "therapeutic and holistic" drug and alcohol treatment order served in the community.
"He can comply," she told the court.
The judge is set to hand down his sentence on April 17.
