A JURY has backed a convicted burglar's evidence and cleared a man of a smash and grab raid at a Worcester jewellers.

Two men wearing hooded coats shattered the display window of Dunn's in Crowngate and made off with valuables worth £11,000.

Stephen Cherry, who is serving 18 months for the break-in, insisted he carried it out with a man he refused to name and ruled out Anthony Moxon in his court testimony.

The jury at Worcester Crown Court found 26-year Moxon, of Eastbank Drive, Worcester, not guilty of burglary at the shop on March 31 this year.

Judge David Matthews remanded Moxon in custody. He pleaded guilty along with another man to affray before the trial began. That offence is connected to the burglary, the jury heard.

During the three-day trial, the court heard how Moxon and Cherry were together at a woman's flat in Worcester on the night of the offence.

The prosecution alleged the men left together, carried out the raid, and then returned breathless to the flat. The stolen goods were found under a bed.

Watches

Fragments of glass found in Moxon's clothing matched the broken jeweller's window, the court heard.

But Cherry said Moxon had already left the flat to buy cigarettes before he and "a friend" left for the jewellers.

Moxon and Cherry were arrested wearing valuable watches grabbed in the raid. Moxon said he bought his off a man he did not know.

The men will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court next Friday because the judge is sitting there.