Between May 12 and 26, McWilliams, 32, broke into the 36-year-old magician’s £1.3 million pad while he was away on holiday, using a ladder to climb over the fence and smashing the back door, burgling the house and setting off the alarm. He stole Rolex and Cartier watches, jewellery, an iPad and a laptop. On May 15, a neighbour reported seeing suspicious activity around the house, with the security system company notifying Frayne of the alarm days later. The firm dismissed the alert as having been triggered by an animal.
According to The Sun, Prosecutor James Dawson said Frayne and his wife didn’t initially think there had been a burglary “because the ground floor was untouched”.
“When they went to the bedroom, they immediately realised they had been burgled,” he said.
“Property was strewn over the toilet area, there had been a rough search.”
McWilliams was arrested four months after the break-in, police having found his DNA on a tree branch overlooking the fence he used to gain entry.
The burglar denied committing the crime, claiming he had entered Frayne’s property through the side gate when he was chased by men he had stopped three men having sex on the Heath near the house.
He said his DNA could only have been found where it was because he had peered over the fence to check if the coast was clear.
A jury found him guilty following a trial which lasted less than three hours.
Judge Brendan Finucane said McWilliams will be facing a lengthy stint behind bars when he is sentenced on Wednesday.
McWilliams’ criminal record includes burglaries, over a dozen thefts and £200,000 raid on an Ernest Jones jewellers in Exeter, for which he was jailed in 2013.
Three months after the raid on Frayne’s property, he was involved in a fatal collision in Kentish Town.
McWilliams faces charges of causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop after a road accident, causing death by driving a vehicle whilst unlicensed or uninsured and aggravated vehicle-taking after being caught by following the hit and run.
He fled the scene on foot and was arrested in September.
The victim, 77-year-old great-grandfather Richard Dougherty, suffered a head injury as a result of the crash and died over a week later.
McWilliams is awaiting sentencing after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.
Frayne is best known as magician Dynamo and shot to fame with his TV series, Dynamo: Magician Impossible.
The Bradford-born star previously made headlines when he spoke out about his battle with Crohn’s disease.