A SELF-styled MI5 agent has been found guilty of carrying out a smash and grab on a harbourside gift shop in Dartmouth.

Jason McCreedy claimed he had been framed after a screwdriver with traces of his DNA was found at the scene.

He was found guilty despite telling a jury at Exeter Crown Court he had been set up in the past by criminals after they discovered he was an informer for the police and security services.

The 44-year-old from Cumbria was convicted after the jury were told he had a 40-year-long criminal record.

He was caught on CCTV from the neighbouring Boots store in the centre of Dartmouth when he scouted the Dartmouth Trading Company shop exactly 24 hours before carrying out the raid.

He was seen walking through the town at 2.40 am and his van, complete with his contact details, was seen driving past.

McCreedy denied using two crowbars and the screwdriver to break into a shop and steal a handful of rings worth several thousand pounds. But his DNA was found on the screwdriver.

When police arrested him at his home in Workington he asked them if ’this was another screwdriver job’. He said he had been given the details by an officer who had tipped him off just before his arrest.

McCreedy was cleared of two burglaries in Cumbria at Carlisle Crown Court in 2011 after telling a jury another screwdriver found at one of the crime scenes had been planted by criminals with a grudge.

For more on this story, see this week’s Dartmouth Chronicle