A brazen burglar framed himself when a householder caught him trying to break in – and then POSED for a picture.
Stephen Neal – once caught having sex at a cathedral – was spotted by cabbie Bernie Sawford lurking in his garden.
Bernie, 58, grabbed his camcorder and started filming the crook – who was carrying an iron bar – but Neal told him ‘I don’t care’ and stood still before calmly walking away.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Furious Bernie dialled 999 and showed his footage to police who found the framed crook nearby and arrested him.
Neal, 26, a prolific petty thief, admitted attempted burglary and possessing an iron bar and was jailed for a year at Cambridge Crown Court.
Bernie, from Ely, Cambs., said: “I noticed there was somebody in the garden but we have a walkway going through to next door so I didn’t think much of it.
“But then he was trying the handle of my back door so I went out and confronted him.
“He wasn’t aggressive or anything but it was quite scary.
“The guy just loitered in my garden for a while, posed for a picture and then ambled back down the street.
“He tried to tell me that he was hiding from some people who were after him but I told him he wouldn’t be hiding in my garden.
“I got my video camera and I told him that I was going to video him and he didn’t seem to mind. He just stood there for me.
“I called police soon after and they arrived at the door within minutes.”
Bernie, a grandfather-of-two, added: “Apparently, police were holding a training exercise in Ely that day for just such an incident so it was quite unlucky for him.
“Normally you don’t get many police in the city but on the day he chose to burgle me there were about a dozen near my house.”
Disrespectful Neal was caught having sex with his half-naked lover in the grounds of historic Ely Cathedral in 2010.
He told police he had got ”carried away” and was fined #130 by magistrates for indecency.
