A man who walked into a police station and confessed to a robbery at a Lowestoft petrol station six years earlier gave the money he stole to charity, a court has heard.

Nicholas Secker told the cashier at the Mill Road service station in Lowestoft, which has since closed: 'You've got five seconds to give me the money or I'll hurt you,' Ipswich Crown Court was told on Thursday.

Secker, 30, of Wellesley Road, Great Yarmouth admitted robbery on February 26, 2010. Recorder Ian Evans adjourned sentence until May 19 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the probation service to look at alternatives to a custodial sentence.

Danielle O'Donovan, for Secker, who has no previous convictions, said her client had committed the robbery during a 'manic' episode six years ago and had given the money he stole to charity. She said he had carried the guilt of what he had done since then and decided to go to a police station and confess. She said the medical condition he had at the time of the robbery was now being managed and he was looking for work.