Trelise Cooper burglary: Florist admits to receiving stolen clothes

Dame Trelise Cooper is an internationally renowned New Zealand fashion designer. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

A florist has admitted to receiving some of the thousands of garments stolen from fashion designer Dame Trelise Cooper's office in a major burglary.

Nicholas James Bush was jailed earlier this month for breaking into Cooper's Newmarket office in October 2020 and stealing nearly $1 million worth of high-end clothing.

The break-in meant the internationally acclaimed designer lost her entire 2021 spring and summer samples.

Court documents show between 6pm on October 17 and 8.30am on October 19 some 2000 items of clothing, valued at about $887,612, were stolen.

Nicholas Bush, who has worked in the television industry, was sentenced to more than two years in prison. Photo / NZ Herald

It was alleged Andrea Edwards, a florist, and two others received some of the items.

Edwards and another woman were arrested in November 2020 alongside Bush after police conducted a search of a property in central Auckland.

She was due to stand trial this morning on charges she knowingly received the stolen garments but instead pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court before Judge Kirsten Lummis.

Andrea Edwards who was found in possession of stolen Trelise Cooper merchandise after the high-profile fashion designer's offices were burgled. Photo / Alex Burton

She acknowledged receiving $136,780 worth of items.

Meanwhile, a cake decorator and private investigator, Kathy Yu-Jen Stephens, is set to stand trial on Wednesday. She denies receiving a relatively small portion of the clothes, including two jackets and dresses.

Kathy Yu-Jen Stephens (in pink) hides behind her lawyer Christina Hallaway at the High Court in Auckland. Photo / NZ Herald

A fourth person, a woman in her 20s, was also charged last May with allegedly receiving some of the clothing.

None of those who were charged by police in the case have any connection to Cooper or her business.

Additional reporting by Sam Hurley and Craig Kapitan