A BOMBER who help plan a grenade attack on a car in a Bolton back street has been warned he faces a lengthy jail sentence.

Londoner Darren Holland had denied conspiracy to cause an explosion after he and co-accused Tom Omona travelled North to carry out the attack on a BMW X3 parked in Back Castle Street on July 23 last year.

But, following a trial at Bolton Crown Court, it took a jury just four hours to unanimously find him guilty.

He had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson after cars used to carry out the attack were set alight.

Holland, aged 54, sat expressionless in the dock as the verdict was delivered and Judge Graeme Smith told him: "The jury have found you guilty and you are to be sentenced for two very serious offences.

"It is inevitable that the sentence will be in custody."

During the trial the court heard how Holland and 29-year-old Omona had used a stolen Mini and Nissan Qashqui, provided by Luqman Hamid, to carry out the bombing.

While Holland, driving the Mini, waited round the corner at 8.40pm, Omona walked up to the BMW, owned by Tiffany Stephens, smashed the window and hurled an improvised grenade into the vehicle.

The £12,000 vehicle was written off in the explosion, which was heard by people living nearby.

"Persons in the immediate vicinity of the IED at the time of initiation would have been at risk of serious injury," Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting, told the jury.

Holland, of Grange Farm Close, Harrow, drove Omona away and they transferred to the Qashqui, setting both vehicles alight before heading back to London.

Painstaking police work, sifting through hours of CCTV footage, led officers to identify the men responsible.

Holland had claimed that he was an unwilling participant in the crimes and was only acting under Omona's directions but the jury did not believe him.

Omona, of Mary Close, Stanmore, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and cause an explosion and Hamid, aged 31, of Yorkshire Street, Rochdale, has admitted three counts of assisting offences.

All three men, who have been remanded in prison, will be sentenced on March 30.