Looking for a function instead of procedure

[Gerry Whitmarsh]

I am not sure if this belongs in a this forum or Microsoft Visual Studio.
MySQL 5.6
MySQL Connector Net 6.8.3
MySQL for Visual Studio 1.2.3
Visual Studio 2013 Community

I have a stored procedure “sp_putcrm” defined as
CREATE DEFINER=`root`@`localhost` PROCEDURE `sp_putcrm`(
IN typecrm INT,
IN in_out CHAR(1),
IN userid CHAR(10),
IN sender_email varchar(64),
IN recipient_email varchar(64),
IN emailsubject TEXT,
IN bodytext TEXT,
IN brokercomment TEXT,
OUT result CHAR(10))
BEGIN
If I execute the procedure in VS 2013 (no out parameter) using MySqlReader it works fine, but because I wish to get a return value I am trying to use ExecuteScalar().
Code:
Public Sub Tester2(ByVal control As Office.IRibbonControl)
Dim cmd As New MySqlCommand
Dim returnValue As Object
Dim Param As New MySqlParameter()
cmd.CommandText = "sp_putcrm"
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
cmd.Connection = conn

Param.Direction = Data.ParameterDirection.ReturnValue
Param.ParameterName = "result"
cmd.Parameters.Add(Param)
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@typecrm", 1)
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@in_out", "I")
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@userid", userID)
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@sender_email", "email")
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@recipient_email", "email")
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@emailsubject", "Subject") cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@bodytext", "Body")
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@comments", "Comments")
Param.Direction = Data.ParameterDirection.ReturnValue
Param.ParameterName = "result"
conn.Open()
returnValue = cmd.ExecuteScalar()
conn.Close()
End Sub

Here I am always getting an exception {"FUNCTION winbroker.sp_putcrm does not exist"}
As I define cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure why is it looking for a FUNCTION?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Gerry.