{"id":856401,"date":"2026-08-15T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/856401\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T17:52:10","slug":"benjamin-simpkins-fraud-charges-for-former-wa-nationals-candidate-accused-of-hit-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/856401\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Simpkins: Fraud charges for former WA Nationals candidate accused of hit-run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s a bizarre twist in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/australia-news\/wa\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Western Australia<\/a> homicide investigation, police announced on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/australia-news\/videos\/former-wa-nationals-candidate-accused-of-deadly-hit-run\/cmpdwip6m000h0hqmw8gmbhaw\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WA Nationals candidate Benjamin Simpkins<\/a> has been charged with three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/fraud-26m1\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fraud<\/a> offences, which police say they uncovered following an alleged hit-run in Katanning, in WA\u2019s Great Southern.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Benjamin Simpkins\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5868284ecb62d704859213931fa86dc21898a82a9538024fc5126c34ddb63e73.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Former WA Nationals candidate Benjamin Simpkins has been charged with three fraud offences, which police say they uncovered following an alleged hit-run in Katanning.\u00a09News<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old is accused of hitting high school teacher Luke Russell with his car in May and leaving him for dead.<\/p>\n<p>The former WA Nationals candidate was charged with failing to report the incident and driving with a suspended license.<\/p>\n<p>Police allege he looked up \u201cobligations after a crash\u201d before deleting his search history and it\u2019s claimed he was seen cleaning his car the following day.<\/p>\n<p>Simpkins is now accused of falsely claiming to hold a university degree and giving incorrect information to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Alleged hit-run in Katanning in May\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ea7955acc51480959990b551edac17415574b82be38f3771060bf8a0a02afb5e.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">The 26-year-old is accused of hitting high school teacher Luke Russell with his car in May and leaving him for dead.\u00a09News<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s alleged he used falsified academic records to work as a cardiac scientific officer at a WA hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Police allege he also lied about volunteer work and used fake documents in an attempt to study at universities.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been charged with one count of each: attempted to pervert the course of justice, gains benefit by fraud; and with intent to defraud utters a forged record.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old remains behind bars and will face court again next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a bizarre twist in a Western Australia homicide investigation, police announced on Saturday. Former WA Nationals candidate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-856401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}