A getaway driver who feigned blindness to convince a jury he was innocent has been convicted of plotting a drive-by shooting.

Dad-of-nine Keble Thompson, 39, twice stood trial for a sawn-off shotgun attack in a barber shop in South Norwood in January 2012.

During his first trial last year, in which the jury failed to reach a verdict, he walked into court with a white stick and claimed the sudden loss of his eyesight meant he could not drive.

But he was found guilty of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life a Croydon Crown Court last week following a retrial, which he attended without the stick.

Thompson, 39, who lived in Layard Road in Thornton Heath at the date of the attack but has since moved to Streatham, faces jail alongside accomplices Leonard Yearde, 24, and Renaldo McIntosh, 31.

 The court heard Thompson drove past Matthew's Unisex Barber in Portland Road while either Yearde or McIntosh shot at the window, showering shards of glass over a bystander.

They are said to have plotted in revenge after Thompson was stabbed two weeks earlier, but targeted the wrong barber shop by mistake.

They then crashed into a parked car in Stanley Road, less than 500 metres from the shooting, forcing them to flee on foot. 

Thompson was later picked out in an identity parade as the driver by Dwayne Matthews, the barber shop's owner, but claimed it would have been impossible for him to drive because he suddenly turned blind overnight in 2008.

Ophthalmologists called by the prosecution and defence appeared confirmed some eyesight problems, but to different degrees of severity. 

Prosecutor Robert Ellison told the first trial's jury Thompson's evidence was "riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainties" and that he had reported nothing more than minor eyesight problems to his doctor, in 2003.

He said: "Any patient can exaggerate. Whatever Mr Thompson's problem is and whether he has one at all, you may feel he is just faking it."

Alphege Bell, Thompson's lawyer in the retrial, said police had him under surveillance to catch him driving but failed.

He added: "The defendant never said that he had total blindness. He said his vision was impaired.

But the jury convicted Thompson, who was linked to the shooting by phone records, on Thursday.

He will be sentenced on May 7 alongside Yearde, of Zion Road, Thornton Heath and McIntosh, of Heathfield Gardens, South Croydon, who were found guilty of the same offence following the first trial in March last year.