A Sri Lankan asylum seeker stands accused of robbing a petrol station and beating a man with a baseball bat.

Hajendra Saravanababanantha, 26, is also alleged to have sent a threatening text message and defrauded another petrol station.

He denied charges of fraud, sending a threatening text message, and common assault, when he appeared at Southwestern Magistrates’ Court on January 3.

The robbery charge was sent straight to Kingston Crown Court.

The court heard an allegation that Mr Saravanababanantha attacked Mr Mochalingham Jegthasan, an off-licence worker, with a baseball bat at a property in Kingston Road, New Malden, on November 9 last year, hitting him four times.

Prosecutor Robert Earl said it was alleged that on March 28 last year he fraudulently used an All Star Fuel Card at the BP garage in Malden Rushett to buy petrol.

The prosecution said he then sent a threatening text message to Mr Ganesamoorthy Nithiyakumar, the manager of the petrol station, on May 22.

He was also charged, along with another man, of robbing Murco Petrol Garage in New Malden of £967 worth of goods, including alcohol, on October 10.

An application for bail by his defence counsel Mr Umar Azmeh, telling the court he had no criminal record and had been working in Tesco since he came to the country in 2006 seeking asylum, was unsuccessful.

Mr Saravanababanantha, of Rowan Road, Streatham, will face a plea and case management hearing for the robbery charge, on January 31, at Kingston Crown Court.

The charges of fraud, threatening text messaging and common assault are next to be heard at a magistrates’ court on February 2.

Another man Kabiloan Venayakamoorthy, 22, of Eastdown Park, Lewisham, will also face a plea and case management hearing at Kingston Crown Court on January 31, in connection with the alleged robbery at Murco, New Malden.