Police have charged a teenager with the knife-point robbery of a service station near Wollongong last week.

About 10.40pm on Friday 8 July, an employee at the service station on Balgownie Road at Balgownie was threatened with a knife and forced to hand over the cash-register draw during an armed robbery.

Police from Wollongong Local Area Command established a crime scene and seized CCTV from the service station.

They searched the area and found the cash drawer, knife and a balaclava dumped a short distance away.

Following further investigative work, police went to an abandoned house on Paradise Crescent at Mount Pleasant known to be frequent by squatters.

They arrested a 14-year-old boy at the house and charged him at Wollongong Police Station.

He was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Children’s Court this morning for the offence of robbery armed with an offensive weapon.