An armed robber found guilty of stealing jewellery worth £1.5 million, including a raid on a Hampshire jewellers, is thought to have fled the country, a court heard today.

Elliott Burton was convicted of involvement in a total of nine raids by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court this afternoon - a day after the 38-year-old absconded while on bail.

Jurors took less than two hours to unanimously convict Burton of conspiring to steal jewellery from nine shops across the South and Midlands.

Following the conviction, Judge Trevor Faber told the jury that the court had ''no idea'' where Burton, of South Acre Avenue, Birmingham, had gone.

But prosecutor Charles Gabb told the court: "I have tried to put measures in place to stop him leaving the country, although I fear he has already done so."

Burton's co-defendant Luke Nash, of Newlyn Road, Birmingham, was found guilty of robbing Jeremy France jewellery shop in Winchester, in December 2006.

The 25-year-old was also found guilty of possessing an imitation firearm during the raid.

A third member of the gang, Simon Waller, 28, of Outwood Drive, Birmingham, is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to a string of robberies between November 2005 and May last year.

Judge Faber told Nash that he was not yet able to sentence him.

The judge told Nash: ''Whatever sentence I pass on the other two, yours will be less - you have not been a ringleader.

''I can't deal with you at the moment. I am sorry, I know you want to know your fate as soon as possible."

The court had earlier heard that the gang were finally apprehended because they got ''too cocky'' and attempted to rob Jeremy France Jewellers in Winchester for a second time in December 2006 after getting away with a ''considerable booty'' the previous year.

Mr Gabb had told the court: "(They thought) that seemed like a good place, we will go and do that one again. That was a nice shop, he (the shopkeeper) should have restocked by now."

But police were able to trace the gang after the second attempt to rob the store went wrong. The gang had failed to realise the jeweller had installed a host of new security devices. Nash also dropped a glove containing his DNA.

In the gang's most successful heist they stole 87 luxury watches, including Cartier, Rolex, Tissot and Patek Phillippe brands, worth about £500,000 from Rudell The Jewellers on High Street Harborne, Birmingham, in May 2006.

The court heard a nine-year-old boy was in a Cheshire jewellers when the raiders struck in August 2006.