A member of a Lithuanian gang who targeted Neyland Marina and escaped with £40,000 worth of marine engines has been jailed for four years.

Henrikas Jagintavicius, aged 31, was the only one to be caught but Judge Christopher Vosper said other must have been involved.

The engines were never seen again.

Jagintavicius, from Worcester, was traced after scientists obtained his DNA profile from inside a boat.

Swansea crown court had heard how, on December 13, 2009, two Honda outboard engines were stolen from a boat at the marina, and two Yamaha engines from another.

A scenes of crime investigator found a cigarette butt and a full DNA profile was obtained. Jagintavicius' profile was already in the system because of an earlier arrest.

In March, 2010, West Mercia police went to an address in Worcester to arrest another man for a non related crime. PC Timothy Duncan, who had been an amphibious troop commander in the Army before joining the police, looked inside a Mercedes van as he waited outside the property and saw the Yamaha engines.

He knew they were for marine usage and not for boats using inland waterways and made inquiries about who else lived at the address.

Jagintavicius' name was entered into the national police computer and West Mercia police discovered Dyfed Powys officers were looking for him.

Also, the van's Lithuanian number plate had been picked up by cameras heading towards Neyland on December 13, 2009.

Jagintavicius claimed he had spent two days on holiday in Pembrokeshire and his cigarette butt must have attached itself to someone's boot and had later fallen off in the engine well.

The jury convicted him after just four minutes of deliberation.

The court heard that by the time the police had returned to the address in Worcester both the Mercedes van and the motors had disappeared, never to be seen again.

Judge Vosper said the gang had targeted high value items, possibly for export outside the UK. He compared them to gangs who stole expensive cars to order and shipped them abroad.

He said the authorities would decide whether to deport Jagintavicius once he had served his prison sentence.