A TEENAGER who carried out a knifepoint robbery at a service station has been remanded in custody by a judge.

Joseph Kingsley pleaded guilty to stealing cash in the raid at the Esso garage in Kingshill Road in March last year.

The 19-year-old also admitted carrying out two similar robberies at small shops in Corsham a couple of weeks earlier.

He had been due to stand trial at Swindon Crown Court on six counts of robbery, six of having a bladed article and one of attempted robbery.

But before a jury could be sworn in he admitted three of the armed raids, and prosecutors said they would not be seeking a trial over four other incidents.

Kingsley and an accomplice had a large knife when he held up the petrol station at the bottom of Kingshill shortly before 8.30pm on Friday, March 30.

After using the blade to threaten the cashier at the garage, which was closed because of panic buying, the pair fled along the canal towpath behind the premises.

Just over a week earlier, Kingsley held up staff at Oakleys newsagents in Corsham and three days later a worker at the town’s Costcutters, on March 22.

Kingsley, formerly of Graham Street, Swindon, pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery and three of possessing a bladed article.

The teenager pleaded not guilty to a further three of each and an attempted robbery and those charges were left to lie on the file.

He had been accused of taking part in a robbery at the Esso in Royal Wootton Bassett the day after the Kingshill Road raid.

A week later he is accused of robbing the Best One Express on Clifton Street, Swindon, then again on Monday, April 9 at McColls in Chippenham.

The final count, an attempted robbery the Hythe Road Store, in Old Town, the would-be raider was chased off by the shopkeeper.

At an earlier hearing he had admitted a burglary at a farm in The Locks, Devizes, where lead and copper piping worth about £2,000 was taken in September last year.

Judge Douglas Field, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, adjourned the case to allow the probation service time to compile a pre-sentence report. He remanded the defendant in custody to February 1 when he is due to face sentence.