"Give me all the money," Fernando barked, holding the attendant up against the back wall of the store. "I have a knife. I will kill you."

The terrified attendant - the only person inside the Sandgate Road service station at 11.35pm on September 10 - had moments earlier tried to lock the office door.

"Don't kill me," he replied. "I will give you the money. Take whatever you want just don't kill me."

Fernando grabbed the attendant by the back of the neck and marched him towards the till.

He grabbed $350 and three packets of cigarettes and then the attendant held open the office door so Fernando could leave.

After Fernando left the store, the attendant armed himself with a metal pole, triggered the alarm and called triple-zero.

He went outside and saw Fernando standing nearby counting the money.

Fernando then ran towards the attendant, grabbing him by the shirt and attempted to take the pole off him.

The pair wrestled over the pole as the attendant repeatedly said: "I am not going to hit you. If you want anything else just got and get it."

Fernando then fled, but only as far as a nearby church, where police arrested him.

Back at the police station, an aggressive Fernando told police "f---ing bring it on" before lunging towards a police evidence bag and wrestling with two officers.

As police tried to control him, Fernando threw a female officer to the ground where she landed on her back. Fernando pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, resisting arrest and assaulting police and was jailed for a maximum of three years and nine months, with a non-parole period of two years in Newcastle District Court.

At the time of the robbery he had only months earlier completed a parole period for stabbing a solicitor at Mayfield in May, 2015.