Knowing that no one was home, the audacious gang took their time strolling around his property armed with axes. They spent 45 minutes plundering the master bedroom before returning later that night to break into a safe.
On Thursday, Kingston Crown Court heard how an 'eye watering' collection of designer jewellery and handbags were looted from the 'vast' collection of Mrs Terry, who loves designer handbags so much that her 36-year-old husband had a handbag shaped cake made for her birthday last year, which she proudly shared on Instagram.
The raiders discovered that the footballer's wife had so many handbags, they were unable to carry them all and instead plumped only for the 28 most valuable items including a £42,000 snakeskin Hermes bag, Chanel bags worth £8,000 and others from Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent.
Details of the raid on February 25 this year emerged for the first time yesterday.
The gang responsible now face years behind bars for burgling the former Chelsea captain and also carrying out a string of other raids on millionaires' homes in the stockbroker belt which netted them a total of £600,000.
Rossano Scamardella, prosecuting, said: 'The burglaries were carefully planned and were carried out with ruthless efficiency.
"The deliberate targeting of expensive homes, guaranteed that once access had been gained, the items found within, would be sought-after luxury goods.
"The most high-profile and best example of this, was the burglary of former England football captain, John Terry's, home address.
"The whole family was enjoying a short break abroad, skiing.
"At the time Mr Terry made the mistake of posting a photograph of himself and his family on the social media platform, Instagram.
"Revealing as it must have done to anyone who saw it, that their house was empty."
The former Chelsea captain and his wife regularly post pictures on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook revealing their lavish lifestyle and they had recently shared photographs of their exclusive gated estate in Surrey including the front door and luxury interior of their mock Georgian property, which previously belonged to golf star Colin Montgomerie.
But just a short time after revealing they were on a ski holiday, the housekeeper staying at an apartment above the garage of their three-storey home noticed security lights going on and off around the property around midnight, which he mistook for a fox.
The court was shown CCTV from outside the home showing two of the gang entering the property at around 10.30pm, spending 45 minutes taking £219,000 of Cartier jewellery, a £61,000 eternity ring, and handfuls of designer watches from the Terry's master bedroom.
They returned with a third man at around 2am and spent nearly an hour in the Terry's master bedroom where they tried to get into the safe.
At 2.55am, the housekeeper was awoken by loud banging coming from the master bedroom which triggered the burglar alarm.
When officers arrived at 3am they were stunned by the scenes of 'carnage' which greeted them as the gang had caused £19,000 worth of damage, wrecking £3,900 carpets and a bespoke £3,600 headboard.
The prosecutor said: "Cupboard doors opened and cupboards emptied with that which wasn't taken strewn across the floor, a dressing table and cupboard completely dismantled, damage to the windows and to the bed, lamps broken, carpets completely ruined."
Inside they also found heavy-duty tools, hammers and an axe and an angle grinder, which was used to try to enter the Terry's safe in the bedroom.
The prosecutor said: "The loss sustained by the Terry's was substantial. One will see there is an eye watering list which includes designer jewellery and designer handbags in particular.
"There were some first edition signed Harry Potter books worth £18,000 and a trophy.
"Handbags to the value of £126,000, were stolen including Louis Vuitton and Chanel as well as other brands.
"One snake skin handbag was valued at £42,000. There was a number of handbags left behind so quite a vast collection.
"The total value of items stolen was £380,000. The total for damage was more than £19,000."
At a previous hearing Darren Eastaugh, 30, Joshua Sumer, 27, Roy Head, 28, and 25-year-old Oliver Hart pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit burglary between February 1 and March 27 this year.
The conspiracy involved seven burglaries across Surrey and Sussex earlier this year, with a total lost from all of them was £600,000.
A fifth man Kye Hardy-King, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of handling stolen goods when some of the stolen property was found at his home.
None of the items taken during the Terry raid have ever been recovered.
The court was told Eastaugh, Hart, Head and Sumer all have a string of previous convictions stretching back 10 years.
The defendants were identified from the CCTV at the footballer's house as well as footage from a nearby petrol garage and cell site data from their mobile phones which placed all of them in the area at the time.
All five are due to be sentenced tomorrow.
