Steven Cafferty thought he and his friends had come up with good plans to carry out their two armed robberies.
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The group sent in a "scout" at the Keiraville post office, before covering their faces and running inside - a gun drawn - and grabbing the till.
At the Lucky 7 Convenience Store at Warilla, Cafferty and his co-accused had their heads covered by hoodies as they used a knife to rob the worker of his laptop bag.
However, their plan was thwarted when the not-so-crafty crew left behind DNA and fingerprints at one scene, and were clearly identifiable on CCTV cameras at the other.
Police quickly tracked down Cafferty and his friends.
However, in a strange twist, Cafferty denied carrying out the Warilla robbery, even when shown the camera footage of the incident.
He denied he was the person in the video, claiming he'd been at his Barrack Heights home at the time of the robbery and hadn't been to the convenience store at all that evening.
Cafferty came clean in Port Kembla Local Court on Wednesday, entering pleas of guilty to both armed robberies.
He also admitted to helping carry out two other hold-ups at a service station in Towradgi and a another convenience store at Coniston. Those offences will be taken into account when he is sentenced in the NSW District Court next month.