{"id":267767,"date":"2026-02-04T20:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/267767\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T20:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:33:06","slug":"fashion-designer-kharl-wirepa-admits-rotorua-burglary-unlawfully-being-on-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/267767\/","title":{"rendered":"Fashion designer Kharl WiRepa admits Rotorua burglary; unlawfully being on property"},"content":{"rendered":"

It carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.<\/p>\n

The amended charge related to his being found without reasonable excuse in a building at 1181 Pukuatua St. That charge carries a maximum prison sentence of three months.<\/p>\n

WiRepa\u2019s lawyer, Douglas Hall, said WiRepa admitted the burglary charge on the condition the police summary of facts was amended to say the amount stolen was valued under $5000, not over $5000.<\/p>\n

\"KharlKharl WiRepa has admitted a charge of burglary at 1298 T\u016bt\u0101nekai St (pictured) on Christmas Eve, 2024. Photo \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n

The summary could not yet be released to the media as it was being amended administratively.<\/p>\n

Judge Hollister-Jones remanded WiRepa on continued bail to reappear for a judge-alone trial on unrelated matters on March 9.<\/p>\n

On that day, he will defend charges that he stole more than $8400 from the Miss Rotorua Foundation, which he founded.<\/p>\n

WiRepa was originally charged with this offending in December 2024, and 10 fraud charges of obtaining by deception from the Miss Rotorua Foundation were added in 2025.<\/p>\n

WiRepa admitted earlier charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of cannabis, burglary of a lamp from Skingraft Rotorua, shoplifting make-up worth $298.93 from New World and $75.76 of cosmetics from Chemist Warehouse, and breaching bail by failing to attend court.<\/p>\n

The drug charges stem from police raiding the Miss Rotorua Foundation premises on Pukuatua St in December 2024, where WiRepa lived at the time.<\/p>\n

\"KharlKharl WiRepa photographed in August 2022. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to 160 hours\u2019 community work on the charges he pleaded guilty to. Judge Hollister-Jones said he would not sentence WiRepa on the two charges he admitted on Wednesday until after his judge-alone trial on March 9.<\/p>\n

WiRepa lost his 10-month name suppression<\/a> fight in November last year.<\/p>\n

His designs have been shown at international fashion weeks and in British Vogue<\/a>, and he starred in the two seasons of the reality television show Gowns and Geysers<\/a>, based on the drama, fashion and glamour of the Miss Rotorua pageant.<\/p>\n

The shows aired on TVNZ+ and M\u0101ori Television.<\/p>\n

Kelly Makiha<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. The amended charge related to his being found without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16489,682,9767,28145,156,1438,97660,111,139,69,90,814,1327,27994,97661],"class_list":{"0":"post-267767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-admits","9":"tag-being","10":"tag-burglary","11":"tag-designer","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-fashion","14":"tag-kharl","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-on","19":"tag-property","20":"tag-rotorua","21":"tag-unlawfully","22":"tag-wirepa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267767","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=267767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}