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’t 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 Māori-driven drug recovery service. STOP stands for “stop taking our people” 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. “Going to court is quite daunting and it can hinder our people.” 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. “We try to break that pattern of that trauma so they can own their own narrative.” 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. “I 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.” He said that often, if offenders and defendants did not have “pro-social” influences in their corner, they would struggle when they went to court. “Sometimes they are so high, they are not aware of what they have on them.” He said his organisation worked with offenders to change their futures. “I’ve gone from dealer to healer.” 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 b...