A RAM raider has been told to expect a long jail sentence after being found guilty of an attack which partially demolished the building.

Dylan Taylor had been out of prison for less than a month when he took part in the bungled raid on a cashpoint machine at the Coop at Trago Mills in Newton Abbot.

He bought a Mitsubishi Shogun for £895 hours before the raid in which it was driven through the front doors and used to ram a free-standing ATM machine.

The force of the impact caused part of the roof to collapse and led to £100,000 structural damage and £40,000 loss of business at the shop.

Taylor was the only one of four intruders to be caught and was traced because he left traces of blood on the outside of the secure unit inside the cashpoint machine as he tried unsuccessfully to force it open.

There was a one-in-a-billion DNA match with Taylor, who has been jailed three times in the past for other ram raids, including one at the Bridgetown Post Office in Totnes on Christmas Day 2012.

He had only been released from a four-and-a-half-year sentence on November 15, less than a month before the ram raid at Trago Mills on December 10.

The traces of blood were found on a part of the ATM which was only accessible after the front had been knocked off by the force of the crash with the Shogun.

Pictures taken by police after the raid showed the car partially buried in the rubble from the collapsed roof and abandoned next to the ATM and close to the vegetable section.

Taylor, aged 43, of Lichfield Avenue, Torquay, denied burglary but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court.

Recorder Miss Hannah Willcocks adjourned sentence for a probation report after reading a letter from Taylor which said he is suicidal because of the recent death of his father and other family difficulties.

She released him on conditional bail but warned him to expect an immediate prison sentence.

She told him: ‘You should be under no illusions and I am not making any promises.’

The jury heard how Taylor was identified by the seller of the Shogun and by the DNA from the cash machine.

Taylor denied being involved and said he had been asleep at his mother’s home in Torquay at the time of the raid. He said his DNA must have got onto to cash machine when he used it during a shopping trip to Trago.