Cheapskate backpackers have forced a Queenstown supermarket to introduce a ticketing system for buying Bluff oysters.

Two men held a knife to a taxi driver's throat before pushing him out of his cab and driving off - for $30 in coins.

A masked gang armed with machine guns and pistols have staged a spectacular robbery at a Swiss casino.

An armed robber ordered customers to the floor while an accomplice fled with a "substantial amount" of cash from a bank yesterday.

A shop assistant was held at gunpoint last night - prompting the widow of a slain liquor store owner to call for imitation firearms to be banned from sale.

The ASB bank investment adviser who stole $17.8m charged his parents interest on a loan to move into a retirement home - then asked for the money back when his fraud was discovered.

If it wasn't for Bernie Madoff, Stephen Versalko could still be stealing millions.

A victim of Stephen Versalko's $17.8 million fraud has spoken of the day she was told he had been "naughty" and had defrauded her and 25 other investors out of millions of dollars.

The scale of the fraud makes Stephen Versalko's case the largest single employment theft in New Zealand history.

Customers who fail to read the fine print could find themselves out of pocket should their PIN numbers be compromised.

Hackers who stole the credit card details of thousands of drivers from payment machines have forced a $4m system upgrade to be fast-tracked.

A young father was stabbed with a steak knife and bitten after he confronted two burglars - both young women - in an incident police say could easily have ended in tragedy.