{"id":447787,"date":"2026-05-27T13:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/447787\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:20:10","slug":"charlie-simonsen-kemp-jailed-after-impersonating-police-to-fool-teen-girls-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/447787\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Simonsen-Kemp jailed after impersonating police to fool teen girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simonsen-Kemp knew a jail term was likely but the judge<\/a> had to decide how much longer he should stay behind bars, given he\u2019d been in custody for more than nine months.<\/p>\n

\u2018Leaving the station now\u2019<\/p>\n

The court heard Simonsen-Kemp\u2019s offending was extensive.<\/p>\n

He met the first victim, a 17-year-old girl, after he \u201crandomly added\u201d her from Snapchat in December 2024.<\/p>\n

Initially, he told her he was a \u201ccop\u201d to reassure her it was safe for him to pick her up and visit Kmart.<\/p>\n

While there, he told her he\u2019d become a cop at such a young age, 18, because he\u2019d previously worked for the NZ Transport Agency and spent lots of time with the police.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019d also done a youth programme when he was 15, so when it came to going to police college, he\u2019d \u201calready done a lot of training\u201d, including driving.<\/p>\n

He sent her photos of himself wearing a white police identification card around his neck and attached to his hip.<\/p>\n

He kept the ID card in a clear plastic wallet, often attached to his hip on an extendable clip, but he\u2019d tuck it into his pocket when they went out.<\/p>\n

Simonsen-Kemp would always have it on him, but never let her touch it, saying this was \u201csomething to do with fingerprints\u201d.<\/p>\n

When visiting his house, he showed her a program on his laptop that he claimed was the \u201cpolice database for entering traffic crash reports\u201d.<\/p>\n

During January 2025, he texted her, \u201cill lyk [let you know] when I leave the station xx\u201d, and \u201cleaving the station now\u201d.<\/p>\n

The following month, he texted her his supposed police details, including his rank, \u201cDetective\u201d status, badge number, and that he was stationed in Ng\u0101ruaw\u0101hia.<\/p>\n

A few days later, he texted to break up with her, stating: \u201cBeing nearly 19, while you\u2019re still 17 has started to affect not only my job but also how people see me\u201d.<\/p>\n

A week later, he sent her a screenshot of a text from a fake police officer that said: \u201cLook Charlie. You can date and see that 17 year old but if anything happens its coming back on you. Ball is in your court [sic].\u201d<\/p>\n

The following day, he texted her a photo of a patrol car parked at the Waikato police highway patrol base with the words, \u201cc*** took my car park\u201d, followed by, \u201cBRUCE TOOK MY PARKING SPOT\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ll let central know\u2019<\/p>\n

The girl\u2019s mother worked for VTNZ and she asked Simonsen-Kemp to return a booklet to police. When she texted him about it, he replied, \u201cthat appears to be the pad from shauns car\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cyou can tell by the coffee stains, ill let central know or I can swing by later as we keep those on our DLDR system [sic]\u201d, before adding that he\u2019d \u201cmake some calls\u201d.<\/p>\n

After a series of other messages, he texted her to say he would need to write the situation up as a minor incident as \u201closing documentation is a serious issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

On February 17, he went to Hamilton Central Police Station to ask if his Eftpos card had been handed in.<\/p>\n

He told the front-counter employee he was a cop based in Ng\u0101ruaw\u0101hia and held up a white police ID card.<\/p>\n

\"CharlieCharlie Simonsen-Kemp was jailed when he appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing yesterday. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

The employee asked him if he knew an officer in Huntly, and Simonsen-Kemp replied that he knew him and referred to him by his nickname.<\/p>\n

He left, and the employee searched his query identifier number, which revealed that it didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

In another elaborate incident in June 2024, he told a female associate he worked for NZTA as an emergency responder to crashes.<\/p>\n

In February 2025, the woman contacted him after being assaulted and he went to the medical centre, telling her he could \u201ctake a statement\u201d and that she could talk to him \u201cabout anything law related\u201d.<\/p>\n

He began taking a statement and asking numerous questions about the assault, saying he would try to find CCTV footage, and that he had to get back to work because he was working on a sexual assault case.<\/p>\n

The ruse continued for another 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\u2018I just wanted people to like me\u2019<\/p>\n

When questioned, Simonsen-Kemp said he pretended to be a police officer to \u201cget approval from people and get them to like him\u201d.<\/p>\n

When police executed a search warrant at his home, they searched his phone and discovered his offending involving the recruitment agency, illegal use of his grandfather\u2019s driver\u2019s licence, sexually explicit videos, and details of other offending.<\/p>\n

A charge of forgery related to him showing a Hamilton City Council \u201cpermit\u201d allowing him to undertake pest control after being approached by a security officer as he shot possums at the Taitua Arboretum on May 2 last year.<\/p>\n

When questioned, he said he made the document because he \u201cdidn\u2019t want to get into trouble\u201d.<\/p>\n

Simonsen-Kemp\u2019s counsel Afitu Veatupu kept his submissions concise, saying that although jail was likely, he hoped the judge could get down to 24 months so he could qualify to apply for home detention. <\/p>\n

Judge Singh agreed.<\/p>\n

He also took into account the various reports that had been prepared, including a mental health report and a remorse letter that Simonsen-Kemp had written.<\/p>\n

The judge sentenced him to 19 months\u2019 prison, granting leave to apply when a suitable address became available.<\/p>\n

However, he noted that given he\u2019d already served nine and a half months in custody, he only had 10 weeks to go before he\u2019d qualify for time served.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simonsen-Kemp knew a jail term was likely but the judge had to decide how much longer he should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,682,15308,4510,73195,30094,6868,13838,42,121684,14641,16122,43,6300,10932,675,13743,15386,228209,5163,10706,61,6382,40,38,41,39,664,416,1524,1316,102],"class_list":["post-447787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-being","tag-charlie","tag-dark","tag-explicit","tag-fool","tag-girl","tag-girls","tag-headlines","tag-impersonating","tag-jailed","tag-mans","tag-news","tag-obsession","tag-officer","tag-police","tag-sent","tag-sexually","tag-simonsenkemp","tag-teen","tag-teenage","tag-to","tag-took","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-turn","tag-video","tag-waikato","tag-when","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}