A film-maker has been arrested in connection with a break-in which caused £250,000 of damage at the EDO MBM Technology factory in Brighton.

Sussex Police confirmed yesterday that officers had arrested a man in a swoop on his home in the city on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

Eight men have already been charged in connection with the January break-in at the building in Home Farm Road, Moulsecoomb.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said the force was continuing its investigations into the night attack, in which raiders hurled computers through windows and vandalised machinery.

An anti-war group calling themselves the “decommissioners” claimed responsibility for the break-in at the factory, which had been a long-term target of protest group Smash EDO. The building is owned by an arms firm, the ITT Corporation.

Videos of the raid appeared on the internet within hours of it taking place.

The latest man to be arrested was named by Brighton activist newsletter SchNews as filmmaker Paul Light. He told SchNews that police had arrived while he was getting his ten-yearold son ready for school and had seized his computer, cameras, diaries and data storage equipment.

Mr Light said: “The raid has effectively shut me down and I am no longer able to make films.

“Film work is my livelihood so effectively they have put me on the dole.”

He denied having any involvement with the factory break-in, other than receiving an invitation to film the police response, which he declined. Mr Light, who is part of SchNews’s film-making collective, SchMovies, said: “As a film-maker I frequently get phone calls about possible incidents to film. This was one shoot I couldn’t and didn’t make.”

He questioned whether Sussex Police had other motives for examining material he had filmed. In its article, SchNews claimed the force had recently tried to offer a download of a film made by SchMovies as evidence in court but it had been refused on the grounds they did not hold the original footage.

Sussex Police declined to comment on those claims. A spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that a warrant was executed in Brighton as part of the ongoing inquiry into an incident.

“A man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and has been subsequently bailed pending further inquiries. A number of items were removed from the property for further investigation.”

Chris Osmond, 28, and Simon Levin, 34, both of Montpelier Road, Brighton, and Thomas Woodhead, 24, Harvey Tadman, 43, Robert Nichols, 51, Ornella Saibene, 48, Robert Alford, 28, and Elijah Smith, 42, all from Bristol, have been charged with criminal damage.