A MAN has been convicted of possessing an air rifle while breaking into a village convenience store in the early hours of the morning.

Lyam Michael John Bull, 23, and co-accused Reece Evnez, 18, broke into The Old Telephone Exchange in Broadwindsor to steal cash and cigarettes at around 1.15am on May 2, 2018.

A neighbour woke up at 1.15am and looked outside to see a grey car pull up and two men wearing balaclavas run down the side of the shop.

He then heard a window smash and dialled 999. Police arrived at the scene 10 minutes later and the pair were arrested.

Officers later discovered two air rifles on the backseat of Evnez's Audi A3 which was parked near the scene.

Evnez and Bull admitted burgling the shop but denied two charges of possessing a firearm while carrying out the offence.

Bull also denied two further charges of possessing a firearm while prohibited from doing so.

Both defendants said they had been hunting rabbits earlier that day which is why the air guns were in the car. However, Bull claims he did not use the guns and only passed a rifle to Evnez. Evnez contested this, saying they were both using the rifles to hunt.

On Evnez’s signed statement he said both guns belonged to him, but he later retracted this in court, saying that one of the guns belonged to Bull.

Evnez claimed that a duty solicitor at Weymouth police station had written out a statement before he had met him.

Giving evidence, Evnez said: "I was taken into an interview room different to where the [police] interview took place. I met the solicitor, I'd never seen him before, never met him before and didn't know where he had come from, only that he was the duty solicitor."

Tim Shorter, mitigating for Bull, said: "And magically, on the table in front of you, is a prepared statement including the lie about ownership of the rifles? Does it not strike you as a coincidence?"

Evnez replied: "I told him that the report was wrong but he didn't seem to like it."

Following a two-day trial at Bournemouth Crown Court, a jury found Bull guilty of one count of possessing a firearm while committing an offence and one count of possessing a firearm while prohibited.

Evnez was cleared of both the charges he faced.

Speaking to the defendants after the jury returned its verdict, Judge Stephen Climie said: "Let's put aside the firearms offences.

"A burglary, so far as both of you are concerned, on a vulnerable community store, puts you both at risk of an immediate custodial sentence."

Bull, of Railway Crossing, Bradpole, and Evnez, of North Allington, Bridport, are due to be sentenced at the same court on Friday, March 1.