{"id":17607,"date":"2025-09-12T08:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T08:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/17607\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T08:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T08:09:07","slug":"recidivist-armed-robber-katana-faulkner-leaves-behind-trail-of-victims-around-north-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/17607\/","title":{"rendered":"Recidivist armed robber Katana Faulkner leaves behind trail of victims around North Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, Judge Clark<\/a> wasn\u2019t as generous this time.<\/p>\n

In court on Wednesday, she took a starting point of 10 years and four months, telling him that was \u201cabout half of your life\u201d, before jailing him for five years and two months.<\/p>\n

\u2018Rotorua, Hamilton, and then New Plymouth\u2019<\/p>\n

Faulkner was never alone when committing his crimes.<\/p>\n

It began in Rotorua, on December 8 last year, when a car was stolen sometime between 7pm and 9pm.<\/p>\n

Forty minutes later, that car, which had Faulkner and three others in it, pulled up outside Liquor Hutt.<\/p>\n

The manager and two customers were in the store.<\/p>\n

The manager noticed masked people running towards the shop and tried to hold the door shut, but the group forced their way inside.<\/p>\n

He fled to the office area and locked himself inside, while the customers retreated to the back of the shop.<\/p>\n

Faulkner and one other were carrying tyre irons.<\/p>\n

The now 20-year-old tried unsuccessfully to kick the office door open, as his co-offenders fleeced cigarettes, alcohol, and the till.<\/p>\n

Two days later, a Mazda was stolen, and about 8pm, Faulkner and two others drove to Thirsty Liquor.<\/p>\n

Faulkner was armed with a pole.<\/p>\n

The shopkeeper was behind the counter, and when he saw the masked group running, he tried to shut the door, but the trio kicked it open. <\/p>\n

They demanded the keys to the cigarette cabinet, but because they couldn\u2019t open it, they forced the shopkeeper to do it.<\/p>\n

They emptied the cabinet of its contents and fled.<\/p>\n

On December 14, they used another stolen car to head to the Selwyn Heights Four Square.<\/p>\n

Faulkner and two others, one of whom had a hammer, drove it to the Selwyn Heights Four Square.<\/p>\n

There were customers inside, along with a staff member, who noticed the masked group of three running in.<\/p>\n

A shop attendant and one customer ran into a back room, but a staff member, who was serving a customer, was stuck.<\/p>\n

She tried to walk away, but Faulkner grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the till and demanded that she open it.<\/p>\n

The till was taken and the cigarette cabinet was emptied, and the group fled.<\/p>\n

Then, in Hamilton, Faulkner and an associate were at a house party.<\/p>\n

His co-offender allegedly made comments about \u201cslicing someone up\u201d and waving a machete around while Faulkner was armed with a knife.<\/p>\n

The pair approached three victims and demanded their phones.<\/p>\n

The co-offender grabbed it, and Faulkner asked for the passcode.<\/p>\n

The victims ran outside in the hope of getting away, but were chased by the pair.<\/p>\n

The co-offender demanded the shoes off two victims, along with a jersey.<\/p>\n

Another victim then yelled out, \u201cRun!\u201d and they did, and hid at a neighbouring property.<\/p>\n

Faulkner and two others were in New Plymouth on December 19 and used a stolen car to drive to Super Liquor where they smashed their way inside using a tyre iron and stole property.<\/p>\n

They then went to a dairy, kicked the door open, and went to the tobacco cabinet, but fled after the fog cannon was activated.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not listening to anyone\u2019s bulls**t any more\u2019<\/p>\n

Counsel Jared Bell said Faulkner was \u201cstill young and is still labouring under the difficulties of those formative years\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge spoke to him about his rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Faulkner said being a young person on remand at Spring Hill, there were only a certain number of programmes that he could do.<\/p>\n

One included the six-week Butterbean Motivation course.<\/p>\n

Asked what he saw for himself in the future, Faulkner replied, \u201ca better future with family\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was also now medicated for his ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going all right. I\u2019m able to focus more and not listening to anyone else\u2019s bulls**t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a long time for someone so young\u2019<\/p>\n

In assessing discounts, Judge Clark said it was \u201cclear\u201d that there had been \u201csignificant\u201d deprivation within his family, and he had issues of abandonment, along with an ADHD diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really, really clear that your formative years were marked by experiences of neglect and trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a five-year two-month jail term was a long time for someone so young.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a long time, and my hope is, Katana, that you will set out as you did on remand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful you will be able to do everything that is available to benefit you in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are still really young … you have a good attitude now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Lexie Glaser sought reparation, and the judge said that while she would have liked to order it, \u201cit\u2019s simply not practical\u201d.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, Judge Clark wasn\u2019t as generous this time. In court on Wednesday, she took a starting point of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7814,665,4057,19432,2514,19431,7973,111,43,139,529,69,1118,19429,19430,4129,8844],"class_list":["post-17607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-armed","tag-around","tag-behind","tag-faulkner","tag-island","tag-katana","tag-leaves","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-recidivist","tag-robber","tag-trail","tag-victims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}