NEED TO KNOW
- Simone Semmens is a former Channel Seven newsreader, now 64, based in Melbourne.
- She was sentenced to 34 months in prison for tax fraud in November 2019.
- While behind bars, she prepared her own appeal from the prison library.
- She could not afford a lawyer and largely represented herself.
- In March 2026, the Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal acquitted her of all criminal charges.
Simone Semmens’ tax fraud case put her in prison and she will never forget the lonely drive to the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Melbourne’s maximum security women’s prison.
It was November 2019 and the former Channel Seven newsreader had just been handed a 34-month jail sentence, to be released after 14 months, for defrauding the government.
Simone’s charges stemmed from a $1.7 million GST bill the Australian Tax Office claimed it was owed after she sold several residential properties.
It was always something Simone denied.
“I’d had a disagreement with the tax office and I was legally challenging the tax assessments and I was going through the process that I was supposed to go through,” Simone, now 64, from Melbourne, tells New Idea exclusively.
But then in May 2013, she woke up to find police and tax officers raiding her home. The ‘Simone Semmens tax fraud’ case was about to become headline news.
“Two members of the Australian Federal Police were on my bedroom balcony, banging on the window and telling me that if I didn’t let them in, they would smash it to gain entry. It was terrifying,” Simone says.
After the raid, the dispute stalled and re-started, and Simone waited for an independent review of her tax assessments.
But in June 2019, she suddenly found herself facing criminal charges of deliberately trying to defraud the ATO and was found guilty.
The mother of two knew there’d been a mistake.
“I went into shock. I remember the judge giving me time to say goodbye to my sisters,” Simone says.
“I was taken down to the holding cell and then transported to prison. It was a cold, bleak night and I was very frightened. I’d never been charged with anything before and I didn’t know what to expect in prison.
But that first night a kind female officer told me to keep my head down, my eyes and ears open and my mouth shut.”
After 14 months in jail, Simone was released in August 2020.
During that time, she’d spent hours in the prison library, single-handedly preparing an appeal against her criminal conviction.
“That first night in prison, I didn’t sleep but the second night I told myself I was going to get through this and I would clear my name,” Simone says.
“The worst days were my children’s birthdays. My son graduated from university and I missed that. My mother was unwell and she died seven months after my release.
“I was with her during her last months but I lost so much time with her that I’ll never get back and I struggle with that.”
When she was released, encouraged by family and friends, Simone spent every day studying tax law and how to appeal her conviction.
She sat in the Appeal Court, listening to appeal hearings so she could learn legal jargon and court etiquette.
She couldn’t afford a legal team so would have to represent herself in court, but barrister Michael Bearman, a specialist in taxation law who thought Simone was unfairly convicted, helped her.
In March 2026, Simone’s tenacity paid off when she won a David and Goliath-style battle in the Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal and was acquitted of all criminal charges.
“One legal professional told me it’s like someone who plays a bit of tennis on the weekends being told to pick up their racquet, play Djokovic on Centre Court, and win!” Simone says.
In the appeals judgment, Justices David Beach, Maree Kennedy and Terry Forrest found three “irregularities” in Simone’s trial, which proved a “huge problem” with the way the jury was led through the case.
“It has given rise to a substantial miscarriage of justice,” the judgment stated.
It was vindication for Simone and she is now considering her options, including compensation.
A big win is because she no longer has a criminal conviction, she can visit her son in the US.
“Throughout everything that happened, my children gave me the will to keep going and it was one of the most special moments of my life when I won my appeal and my kids told me how proud they are of me. That made the fight worthwhile.”
