A MAN has been found guilty of plotting raids on two Teesside jewellery stores from behind bars.

Serving prisoner Ian Ogden, 27, had denied two charges of conspiracy to rob in respect of raids on Market Cross stores in Middlesbrough and Yarm.

But after almost ten hours of deliberation by a jury in his trial at Teesside Crown Court, he was found guilty on both counts on majority 10-2 verdicts.

Judge Tony Briggs remanded Ogden, of Forest Bank Prison, Salford, Greater Manchester, back into custody and said he would be sentenced on a date yet to be set.

A number of men from Manchester and Teesside have already admitted their involvement in the robberies and are also awaiting sentence.

The deliberations were held up more than once while jurors posed questions about the evidence they had heard.

Odgen admitted that several of the men involved in the raids - where staff were threatened with a hand gun and axes - were his friends and associates and he engaged in “idle chit chat” with them using smuggled mobile phones.

He also said more than 50 per cent of the names in his address book belonged to criminals.

But giving evidence in his defence, he claimed he knew nothing at all about the robberies which netted £637,000 in jewellery, including more than half-a-million pounds worth of designer watches.

Prosecutor Richard Bennett said Ogden was “at the heart” of the conspiracy that took place.

Cheap and potentially untraceable mobile phones - known as "dirty" phones - were used and analysis of these gave police an insight into who was in contact with who and at what time.

Mr Bennett told the jury: "Crucially, Ogden was in contact with a number of key players in the conspiracy at significant times.

"The prosecution case is that Ogden, despite being locked up in jail at the time, was a key organiser and helped set up contact between North-East and North-West.

"He then carried on playing an important role in the activities of the conspirators.”

The dramatic smash and grab raids - in Yarm in November 2014, and in Middlesbrough in January last year - were captured on CCTV cameras.

To date, only a single watch has been recovered.