A crane driver has appeared in court via a prison TV link accused of a series of armed robberies in Kent 15 years ago.

Anthony Shaw - who has been remanded to Elmley Prison - is accused of six robberies dating back to 1998 - including one where the victim was just 13 years old.

The knifepoint attacks are alleged to have happened at small stores in Canterbury, Folkestone, Tyler Hill, Dover, Margate and Sittingbourne during a two-and-a-half week period.

Shaw, 43,of Acton, North London was remanded in custody until May 27 when he is expected to enter his pleas to the charges.

He was arrested and question regarding a domestic incident which was later dropped - but his fingerprints were taken.

Later officers raided a house in Burlington Gardens, Margate, last month and questioned him about the raids between December 1998 and January the following year.

Shaw now faces six robbery charges:

• December 22 1998 at Derrington Stores, Park View,Derringstone Hill in Barham when cash was taken from a till during anarmed struggle where a woman was pushed to the ground

• December 29 at Densole Newsagents, Canterbury Road when cashwas seized by an attacker armed with a knife

• December 31 at Tyler Hill Post Office in Hacklington Roadwhen a man went to pay for a bar of chocolate before producing a knifeand snatching £60 cash from the till
• January 8 1999 at Eythorne Post Office in Sandwich Road,Dover where a 13- year-old working behind the till. The robber pretended to pay for a newspaper before using the knife to demand cashfrom the till
• January 11 at Male Newsagents, Thanet Road, Margate where the robber again picked up a newspaper before demanding money
• The same day at Fine Food Store in Tonge Road, Sittingbourne,where the robber picked up a newspaper and then threatened a womanbefore taking notes from the till

Shaw's barrister Crispian Cartwright told the court that not guilty pleas are expected at the next hearing and a trial date has been set for June 6.

An application for Shaw to be given bail until his trial was rejected by Judge Adele Williams.

Senior detectives are believed to have contacted witnesses in France and New Zealand during their investigations into the robberies.