TWO men have admitted carrying out the robbery of a female assistant at a petrol service station.

Alan Paul Lawrence and Callum Michael Grice admitted involvement in the raid, in which a liquid was squirted into the assistant’s face at the New Seaham Service Station, on the afternoon of Sunday January 23.

The pair fled the Esso premises, in Stockton Road, with a drawer from the cash till, a quantity of money, vapes and cigarettes.

Read more: Robbery reported at Seaham petrol station

Lawrence also admitted possessing an offensive weapon, a bottle containing the liquid squirted into the assistant’s face.

He accepted having the bottle but the court was told his admission was on the basis that the substance it contained was hand sanitiser and not ammonia.

Grice denied possessing an offensive weapon, a baton, during the incident.

His counsel, Rod Hunt, said it was his client’s case that he played a lesser role in the robbery, having told an earlier hearing he was expecting Grice to be facing a charge of aiding and abetting robbery.

John Crawford, for Lawrence, asked for a psychiatric report to be prepared on his client prior to the sentencing hearing due to mental health issues.

Agreeing, Recorder Andrew Dallas set the date for sentence at the court as Monday April 4.

He remanded Lawrence, 31, said to be of no fixed abode, but formerly of Murton, and his 23-year-old co-accused, of Margaret Street, in Seaham, to remain in custody at Durham Prison until the sentencing hearing.

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