Wanted man Thomas Phillips returned home to pick up supplies, before fleeing again and evading police.

Thomas Phillips, 34, was due to appear in the Te Kūiti District Court at 11am on January 12 on a single charge of causing wasteful deployment of police personnel and resources in relation to a large-scale search for him and his three children, Jayda Jin, Maverick and Ember, in September.

A warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear.

Phillips’ family told the police he returned to a family home briefly in February to pick up supplies, Waikato west area commander Inspector Will Loughrin said in a statement to Stuff.

“He provided reassurances to his family that he and his children were well, however did not disclose where they were living.”

Police were in ongoing contact with his family and the local community in efforts to locate Phillips, Loughrin said.

But police refused to give details about what supplies Phillips needed and how he was doing.

An Oranga Tamariki spokesman said it was unable to comment because the matter was before the courts, and there was no privacy waiver.

Last year, grave concerns were raised for the welfare of Phillips and his children after his 4WD vehicle was found abandoned below the tideline on Kiritehere Beach on September 11.

There was no sign of the occupants. The child carseats in the back were empty and the keys were under the driver’s side mat.

The family reappeared, safe, 18 days later.

Dense bush 15 kilometres south on Mangatoa Rd where Thomas Phillips and his children went missing.Christel Yardley / Stuff

The family of four survived in a tent in the dense bush, about 15 kilometres away from the coast.

Police and search and rescue volunteers scoured the desolate coast at Kiritehere to no avail. The group were not spotted despite an extensive search including search and rescue teams, community volunteers, heat-detecting drones, a helicopter, and jet skis.

Phillips went bush with his children for a second time in December, prompting police monitoring but not a search.

The police charge against Phillips states that between September 11 and September 30, 2021, “being reckless as to whether wasteful deployment of police resources would result, behaved in a manner that was likely to give rise to serious apprehension for the safety of himself, Jayda Phillips, Ember Phillips and Maverick Phillips, knowing that such apprehension would be groundless.”

The charge comes with a maximum penalty of three months in prison or a fine of up to $2000.

Phillips worked as a fencer and spent several years in the South Island. He separated from the children’s mother a few years ago and had become a full-time father.

Jayda, Maverick and Ember do not go to school, instead they are home-taught by their father, who himself was home-schooled, apart from a stint at a private school in Hamilton.