A SELF-STYLED MI5 agent has been ordered to pay compensation to the owner of a gift shop where he carried out a smash and grab jewellery raid.

Serial burglar Jason McCreedy was told he had been spared jail "by the skin of his teeth" after he received a suspended sentence.

He was ordered to pay the £450 compensation to shop owner Christopher Otter to cover the cost of his insurance excess and the damage to his door.

He was caught because he and his van had been caught on CCTV when he scouted the shop the night before the burglary and he left a screwdriver on a ledge at the scene.

He claimed he had been framed by enemies in the criminal underworld in revenge for his work as a police and MI5 informer when a screwdriver with his DNA on its handle was found at the scene of the break in at Dartmouth.

McCreedy, aged 44, of Sarsfield Road, Workington, who was staying with family in Bovey Tracey at the time, denied burglary but was found guilty after a trial at Exeter Crown Court.

He was jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 160 hours unpaid work and pay £450 compensation and £500 costs by Recorder Mr Paul Grumbar.

He told him: "There was an element of planning involved in this. You have a dreadful record and have been committing offences of dishonesty for years.

"There is a chilling aspect of this case and your conduct suggests you may well be something of a professional. You were quite rightly convicted on overwhelming evidence but I take into account your previous offences were some time ago.

"I am suspending this sentence with a great deal of hesitation but I do so because you have a partner and are living with her and her child and there is some home you may stop this absurd behaviour. You have stayed out of jail by the skin of your teeth."

Ian Graham, prosecuting, said McCreedy was seen casing the Dartmouth Trading Company in the inner harbour at Dartmouth the night before the raid on August 1, 2012.

He burgled the shop in the early hours by smashing open a door with a crowbar and screwdriver and stole jewellery with a retail value of £10,000 to £12,000. The owner received the £4,250 wholesale cost on insurance but had to pay an excess and the cost of repairing the door.

McCreedy, who told the jury the case against him was a joke and that he had been framed, told the judge he has turned his back on crime and is now working as a quad bike, motorcycle and jet ski repair mechanic.

He said: "My past record is to my shame but it is wrong to continue to punish me for the past. I want to change my ways but my past always comes back to haunt me.

"I can keep out of trouble. I hate criminals. They use and abuse and manipulate people. They are the seed of the devil and I am sad to say I used to be one of them."

McCreedy has a 30 year-long history of offending and has previously been featured on Crimewatch. He was jailed for five years in 2006 for laundering the £42,000 proceeds of a series of Post Office raids in the East Midlands.