Police have confirmed they were aware of shoplifting allegations involving Green MP Golriz Ghahraman since October last year, when they received the first report involving her targeting the Wellington retail outlet Cre8iveworx. 

Ghahraman announced her resignation from her role as MP yesterday afternoon, revealing she had been suffering mental health issues as a result of the stress from her work. This news came following a stream of allegations she had been shoplifting stores in Auckland and Wellington. 

The first allegations were brought to public attention by ZB Plus on January 10, eighteen days after the most recent alleged incident which occurred at Auckland central's exclusive retail outlet, Scotties Boutique. 

The retailer was allegedly targeted twice for shoplifting by Ghahraman, once two days prior to Christmas and another time a week earlier. The day before her resignation, the third alleged incident came to light involving Wellington retailer Cre8iveworx. 

Police have now confirmed they were aware of the MP alleged having shoplifted the Wellington store when they received the incident's report on October 26.

This was over sixty days before the Green Party was first made aware of allegations. 

Despite having known months before anybody else of the incident, police are still investigating and yet to confirm whether they will press or drop charges relating to the allegations. 

ZB Plus was told police intended not to press charges on any allegations it had been made aware of before news broke on January 10.

Green Party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson on Friday said they had been made aware “of an allegation involving Golriz Ghahraman and Scotties Boutique” on December 27.

The second allegation came to their attention on January 5 - meaning the party leadership was aware of the allegations before ZB Plus broke the initial story.

However, the party confirmed to the media in a press conference that it was only aware of October’s alleged incident when news broke about it earlier in the evening.

Ghahraman had left at this point on a "long-planned personal trip overseas", but Scotties Boutique was willing to wait for her return to New Zealand to resolve the issue.

Green Party leadership confirmed they had contacted Ghahraman to discuss her standing down from her portfolios on January 5, after learning of the second allegation.

In the most recent statement provided to the media, the co-leaders paid tribute to Ghahraman's work over the last six years, noting her work as "the leading voice in Parliament for human rights, truly independent foreign policy, and electoral reform". 

"It is clear to us that [Ghahraman] is in a state of extreme distress. She has taken responsibility and apologised. We support the decision she has made to resign." the leaders said. 

"We are deeply sorry to see Ms Ghahraman leave under these circumstances and we wish her all the best for the future."