Keys, wallet, phone ... a gun, a taser, some methamphetamine, cannabis and a bong, a round of ammunition and a can of beer.
Sadly for some people, these are potentially the must-haves when walking out the door to go to court.
The items are among those people have tried to smuggle through the doors at the Rotorua and Tauranga courthouses during the past year.
Details about banned items confiscated by security officers at the courthouses between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025, have been released under the Official Information Act by the Ministry of Justice.
They show people entering the courthouse in Rotorua were found on average more than twice a week trying to smuggle in banned items.
These included cannabis, methamphetamine, knives and other dangerous weapons such as a gun and tasers, and items used to smoke drugs.
The problem isn鈥檛 as bad in Tauranga, but on average nearly one person a week is found with something sinister - including one person who had a machete.
Banned items were seized by court security officers from 125 people at the Rotorua courthouse and 46 people at the Tauranga courthouse.
The numbers reflect an increase in Rotorua, up from the 90 people caught smuggling banned items during the 2023/24 12-month period.
But in Tauranga the number is a slight decrease with 50 people caught with banned items during the 2023/24 period.
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed a national increase of 19% in security incidents in courts, of which there was an increase in behaviour-based incidents.
Between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025, there were 4955 incidents compared with 4147 during the previous 12 months.
Creating change
Bay of Plenty social services leader Kevin Hollingsworth said not being prepared to make a good impression at court could be costly for some offenders - something his organisation was trying to change.
Hollingsworth, who is executive director for Mana Enhancing STOP Charitable Trust, is a former drug dealer who now works to help people turn their lives around.
Mana Enhancing STOP Charitable Trust executive director Kevin Hollingsworth. Photo / Kelly Makiha
The trust is a kaupapa M膩ori-driven drug recovery service. STOP stands for 鈥渟top taking our people鈥 and refers to methamphetamine and other harmful substances.
Hollingsworth, who has been clean since 2011, said it was essential to ensure people going to court were prepared, knew their rights and wanted to do what was required to make right and help their causes.
鈥淕oing to court is quite daunting and it can hinder our people.鈥
He said often they were recidivist offenders who were trying to break their patterns of behaviour, but they needed to go back to the basics of learning what was appropriate.
鈥淲e try to break that pattern of that trauma so they can own their own narrative.鈥
He saw the benefits of offenders and defendants who went through their programmes, and often they had much better sentencing outcomes purely from being supported.
Hollingsworth said during his dark days on the other side of the dock, he had turned his back on the justice system.
鈥淚 literally saluted a judge with the one finger. And what happened? He took my pen and he wrote my story. But now I have taken back that pen.鈥
He said that often, if offenders and defendants did not have 鈥減ro-social鈥 influences in their corner, they would struggle when they went to court.
鈥淪ometimes they are so high, they are not aware of what they have on them.鈥
He said his organisation worked with offenders to change their futures.
鈥淚鈥檝e gone from dealer to healer.鈥
The work of the security officers
Under the Courts Security Act 1999, court security officers have the power to act if they discover potentially dangerous items.
When screening the possessions of a court visitor, they can take any item that could potentially be a weapon and return it to the person when they leave.
If the item is deemed prohibited, it will be seized and the person detained.
The matter would then be handed to the police.
Ministry of Justice national security operations director Peter Cowan said each individual walked through a metal detector.
If metal was detected, a hand-held metal detector would be used to identify the cause of the activation.
If further investigation was needed, a localised pat-down search could be performed.
All incoming property is screened using an X-ray machine, and a hand-held metal detector may be used to identify any items that require further investigation.
Cowan said if an item was still unable to be identified, a search by hand was conducted.
As at the start of November, there were 16 court security officers in Rotorua, including two court security managers with one outstanding vacancy. In Tauranga, there were 15 court security officers, including two managers, and three job vacancies.
Items confiscated from the Rotorua Courthouse: October 2024 to September 2025
October 2: Cannabis grinder
October 3: Key knife
October 3: Cannabis
October 9: Point bag, straw used for methamphetamine
October 10: Two cannabis cones
October 17: Cannabis, seeds, cone
October 23: Methamphetamine pipe
October 31: Scissors with residue
November 1: Drug pipe
November 4: Key knife
November 6: Kubotan (keychain weapon)
November 8: Ammunition round
November 12: Knuckle duster
November 12: Methamphetamine pipe
November 13: Two methamphetamine pipes
November 18: Knuckle duster
November 21: Cannabis
November 21: Three straws for drug use, bong, cone piece, tin of cannabis
December 2: Credit card knife [a knife designed in the shape of a credit card]
December 4: Cannabis grinder, knife
December 4: Bong, screwdriver covered in drug residue
December 5: Scissors with drug residue
December 11: Scissors covered with cannabis residue, methamphetamine
December 11: Point bag with drug residue
December 12: Methamphetamine
December 12: Cannabis pipe
December 12: Cannabis
December 18: Drug pipe
December 24: Methamphetamine pipe
January 8: Pepper spray, key knife
January 9: Cannabis pipe
January 13: Knuckle duster
January 16: Methamphetamine pipe.
January 21: Knuckledusters
January 24: Cone piece
January 29: Methamphetamine pipe, scales, scissors with drug residue
January 29: Kubotan
January 30: Methamphetamine drug utensil, two point bags with drug residue, unidentified pills
January 30: Kubotan
February 5: Knife, point bag
February 17: Key knife
February 18: A pair of scissors with drug residue, cannabis
February 20: Glass drug pipe
February 27: Cannabis
March 5: Cannabis
March 14: Cannabis, glass drug pipe
March 18: Knuckledusters, cannabis, bong, thimble
March 18: 1x round of ammunition
March 20: Cannabis
March 26: 2 point bags
March 28: Methamphetamine pipe
March 28: Cannabis, empty point bags
April 3: Needles for drug use
April 3: Cannabis
April 7: Credit card knife
April 8: Cannabis pipe, cannabis grinder, a knife and a wire used to ignite cannabis
April 23: Smoking pipe
April 30: Cannabis
April 30: Cannabis, cone piece, multi-tool, craft knife (containing cannabis residue), tinfoil wrapped glass thermometer
May 9: Credit card knife
May 12: Pepper spray
May 13: Cannabis
May 13: 1 round of ammunition, cannabis
May 14: Cannabis
May 14: Knuckleduster
May 15: Hose piece, cone piece
May 16: Cannabis
May 20: 1 round of ammunition
May 27: 1 gun, 1 knife
May 28: Scissors with cannabis residue, small knife and hose for drug use
June 3: Cannabis pipe
June 10: Cannabis
June 12: White powder
June 13: Kubotan
June 16: Cannabis
June 17: Cannabis
June 19: Drug paraphernalia (unspecified)
June 19: Glass, pipe, cannabis
June 23: Cannabis
June 23: Credit card knife
June 30: Punch knife
July 3: Cannabis utensils, needles, white residue
July 3: Glass pipe, knife
July 7: Bong
June 7: Cannabis, grinder, cone piece, white residue, butcher鈥檚 knife, bong
July 8: Knuckle duster ring
July 8: Methamphetamine
July 10: Screwdriver
July 15: Knuckle duster ring
July 17: Glass pipe
July 18: Drug paraphernalia
July 21: Knife
July 22: Glass pipe
July 23: Glass pipe, cannabis
July 28: Belt buckle knife
July 30: Cannabis pipe, cannabis
July 30: Cannabis, drug paraphernalia
August 5: Drug paraphernalia
August 7: Meth pipe
August 11: Cannabis, drug paraphernalia
August 14: Cone piece
August 18: Methamphetamine pipe
August 18: White powder
August 19: Cannabis
August 19: Knife
August 21: Kubotan
August 21: Methamphetamine, cannabis
August 27: Kubotan
August 27: 2 methamphetamine pipes, methamphetamine
August 28: Cannabis pipe
September 1: Knife
September 3: Cone piece
September 8: Knife
September 9: Knife
September 9: White powder, cone piece
September 15: Knife
September 15: Kubotan
September 16: Drug paraphernalia
September 17: Methamphetamine pipe
September 18; Cannabis, cannabis grinder
September 22: Cannabis
September 26: Drug pipe
September 26: Cone piece
September 26: Drug pipe
Items confiscated from the Tauranga Courthouse: October 2024 to September 2025
October 3: Knuckle dusters
October 7: Credit card knife
October 8: Cannabis grinder
October 8: Cannabis
October 14: Kubotan
October 17: Cannabis grinder
October 17: Cannabis, scissors with residue
October 17: Unidentified pills
October 17: Cannabis pipe
October 18: Three bags of cannabis, a small set of scales
October 21: Cone piece, empty point bag
October 29: Cannabis pipe
October 30: Cannabis, cannabis pipe
November 1: Taser
November 5: Key knife
November 8: Glass pipe
November 13: Kubotan
November 14: Small knife
November 21: White powder
November 25: White crystals, straws for drug use
November 29: Butterfly knife
November 29: Round of ammunition
December 13: Cannabis
December 19: Knife, can of beer
December 22: Garden sickle
December 24: Methamphetamine pipe, 3 point bags, small pocketknife
January 24: Small pocketknife
January 28: Methamphetamine pipe.
February 4: Key knife
February 5: Knuckledusters, knife, methamphetamine pipe
February 7: Cannabis
February 12: Methamphetamine pipe, 2 unidentified tablets
February 13: Switchblade
February 19: Kubotan
March 7: Craft blade with drug residue, hypodermic needle, tablets
March 11: Cannabis
April 1: Glass methamphetamine pipe
April 28: Knife, cannabis grinder, bong
April 28: Drug pipe, knife
April 29: Scissors with cannabis residue
May 2: Cannabis
May 2: Cannabis
May 22: Machete
May 29: Cannabis pipe
June 12: Cone piece for a bong
June 12: Key knife
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
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