Te Ngae Rd Rotorua firearms incident: Name suppression for Hamilton man charged

The identity of a man arrested following a firearms incident on Te Ngae Rd two weeks ago will remain under wraps for at least another two weeks.

The man, aged 25, appeared in the Rotorua District Court today and did not enter pleas to two counts of robbing two different women of vehicles while armed with a .270 calibre rifle on September 1. One vehicle was a Toyota Corolla and the other was a Ford Ranger.

His lawyer, Casey Haumaha, said she had only received disclosure from the police today and had not yet had the opportunity to get instructions from the man.

She asked that he be remanded in custody for two weeks to allow time to consider a plea and also get instructions regarding continued name suppression.

Judge Maree MacKenzie said there were no apparent grounds for continued name suppression given the high-profile nature of the allegations and she said the order for interim name suppression would only continue until his next appearance unless she could be convinced otherwise.

She remanded the man in custody to reappear on September 30 at 2.15pm.