Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declined to say whether he knew about or authorised a briefing document circulated by his office that raised questions about independent MP Helen Haines.

Haines is in a critical condition after allegedly being pinned against her vehicle by a Toyota LandCruiser before being struck again outside her Wangaratta office in north-east Victoria on Monday afternoon. She has lost a leg.

After the alleged attack, Mr Albanese urged politicians and the public to ease the political rhetoric. He also praised Ms Haines and cautioned against making unwarranted claims about the motives of elected representatives.

However, the Daily Mail reported exclusively on Tuesday that the Prime Minister’s office had sent journalists a “dirt sheet” only weeks earlier. The document questioned Ms Haines’ integrity after she challenged a $6 million government grant awarded to Marrickville Golf Club in Sydney’s inner west.

The file contained no evidence of misconduct, but suggested possible avenues for journalists to investigate. (See our full copy of the dirt sheet here.)

Asked about the document during an interview with News24 on Wednesday, Mr Albanese avoided directly addressing the issue and instead described Ms Haines as a strong local representative.

“Were you aware or [did you give] approval to your office to distribute to the press gallery information about Helen Haines?” host Kieran Gilbert asked.

Mr Albanese replied: “Helen Haines is a good local member.

“She put forward applications like other members do for grants, and that’s what good local members do, and Helen Haines is a very strong advocate for her community.”

Mr Gilbert pressed the Prime Minister on the matter, asking: “So did the office send that out? Do you regret that in hindsight, given the events of recent days?”

Mr Albanese again stopped short of giving a direct response.

“Helen Haines is a strong advocate for her community, and she advocates for funding, just as the Coalition made more than 1,000 commitments worth $1.644 billion during the election campaign,” he said.

“That’s what local members do for their local communities.”

The Daily Mail’s reporting found that the document carried the name of the Prime Minister’s deputy director of communications. It detailed funding requests Ms Haines had made for projects in her regional Victorian electorate and outlined potential questions for reporters.

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Among the issues raised were whether Ms Haines had failed to declare gifts, possessed business interests, received political donations or had personal links to organisations that might benefit from government funding.

Daily Mail Political and Economics Editor Peter van Onselen said the Prime Minister had yet to clarify why the document was produced or what role his office played in distributing it.

“The PM was asked whether he knew about or approved the dirt file. He answered by praising Helen Haines,” he said.

‘That’s not an answer. It leaves entirely unexplained why his office circulated insinuations about her integrity.

‘This document appeared after Haines challenged the $6 million grant to the Prime Minister’s local golf club. If the purpose wasn’t to discredit her, what was it? Albo has offered no explanation for either its timing or its contents.’

Van Onselen said the Prime Minister’s defence of Haines during the interview sat uneasily alongside the contents of the briefing note.

‘The PM now says advocating for local funding is what good MPs do. Yet his office invited journalists to treat Haines’ advocacy as grounds for suspicion about undeclared gifts and personal interests.’

‘The dirt file had no evidence of undisclosed wrongdoing. He hasn’t addressed that contradiction.

‘When I showed Helen the document at the time I received it, she was disgusted. She was openly advocating for community projects, and suddenly found her personal integrity being questioned without supporting evidence.

‘The Prime Minister’s praise for her now is welcome, but it doesn’t explain his office’s disgraceful treatment of her then.’

On Tuesday evening, Victoria Police charged 43-year-old Brendan Nugent over the alleged hit-and-run that left Haines seriously injured. 

He has been charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury and intentionally causing serious injury, following an investigation by detectives into the incident.

Police also laid a federal charge of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official against Nugent, with a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars if convicted.

Nugent briefly appeared before Wangaratta Magistrates Court on Wednesday. He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody to face court again in February. 

A Florida police officer who helped find a deceased man inside his home is accused of taking over the property, moving in, funding an extensive renovation and later using the dead man’s identity to obtain approval for construction work.

Brian Louis Sguros, 35, allegedly claimed Dennis Ionis West’s Lauderhill house only weeks after discovering his body during a welfare check. Investigators say he then spent years upgrading the home, even though ownership remained legally connected to West’s estate.

The most serious allegation involves a building permit filed more than two years after West’s death. Authorities say the application included West’s identifying information and a signature presented as though it had been signed by him.

Sguros, a Lauderhill police officer, is facing five charges after investigators examined claims that he misused his official access, searched law enforcement databases improperly and tried to create a financial stake in the property.

The allegations include official misconduct, unlawful use of a deceased person’s identification, unlawful use of personal identification information, an offense involving a computer user and illegal use of a two-way communications device.

The case is detailed in a 21-page arrest affidavit prepared by the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Investigators say the events began on July 11, 2022, when Sguros and another officer were sent to 4551 NW 12th Street in Lauderhill, Florida.

Police had been contacted by a worried neighbor who said West had not been seen for approximately two weeks.

The officers entered through the home’s unlocked front door and found West’s body near the entrance. A later autopsy concluded that he died from cardiovascular disease, and officials classified the death as natural.

Investigators said body-camera video did not show Sguros telling the other officers that he knew West.

Later records indicated that Sguros told the medical examiner’s office he was West’s friend. He also allegedly offered to organize the funeral if authorities were unable to locate any relatives.

West did have surviving relatives, however. Investigators ultimately identified several family members and legal heirs.

While West’s family would ordinarily expect his estate to be handled through the legal process, authorities allege that Sguros began pursuing a different course for the home.

According to sworn statements cited in the arrest affidavit, Sguros said he took possession of the property around August 1, 2022—roughly three weeks after West’s body was found.

Neighbor Lethel Haye said she was surprised by how quickly Sguros appeared to assume control of the house.

“I was wondering, Dennis had just passed away and how could he have gotten the house so quick,” she said.

Haye recalled seeing the neglected property undergo major changes, including the removal of rotting boards and extensive interior construction.

“He was taking out all the rotten boards and everything inside and putting it outside, and at one point, they were living in there,” she said.

West’s house was being given a makeover, but the question of who had the right to call it home would eventually become the subject of a bitter legal feud.

Sguros maintained that he had spent more than two years cleaning, securing and renovating the property to protect it from squatters and criminal activity.

In court filings, he claimed to have invested at least $214,000 of his own money into the house, which he said was worth approximately $500,000 after the improvements.

He also paid property taxes, according to investigators. Records showed that nearly two years after West’s death, a payment of more than $2,500 was made towards a utility account that remained in the dead man’s name.

But however much work had gone into the property, the paperwork bore West’s name. The house remained registered under his estate.

In August 2024, investigators say, an application was submitted for an $8,000 project to replace the property’s windows and exterior doors.

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The application listed West as the owner, included his driver’s license information and bore a signature purportedly belonging to him.

More bizarrely, it also indicated that West had appeared before a notary that month, yet West had been dead for more than two years.

According to the affidavit, the telephone number listed for the deceased homeowner on the application actually belonged to Sguros.

Detectives interviewed an employee of Active Builders Inc, the company involved in the renovation. The employee said Sguros had supplied the documents needed for the building permit, including a copy of West’s driver’s license, according to investigators.

The employee told detectives he believed West was alive and owned the property because of the information Sguros had provided.

Investigators also reviewed text messages between the employee and Sguros that allegedly included images of West’s identification and the permit paperwork.

The notary whose name appeared on the documents told detectives she did not recognise the paperwork and said the signature was not hers. She also said the notary stamp appeared smaller than the one she used, according to the affidavit.

Investigators also examined whether Sguros had used the privileged access that came with his police job to obtain information about West.

Records allegedly showed that the officer conducted seven searches on a Lauderhill Police Department-issued computer between July 2022 and January 2023, looking up West’s driver’s license and vehicle registration details.

The results included personal information such as West’s address, date of birth, Social Security number and vehicle details, according to the affidavit.

One search, conducted in January 2023, specifically identified West as deceased, investigators said.

Meanwhile, the battle over who had the right to the house continued.

In February 2025, Sguros and another individual filed paperwork seeking to establish adverse possession of the property, according to the affidavit. The filing itself did not grant them legal ownership.

Then Equinox Realty Holdings entered the picture, locating West’s several surviving heirs and acquiring their ownership interests in the home.

A Broward County court subsequently recognized the heirs’ interests and the transfers to the company.

Sguros eventually surrendered the keys, investigators said. But he was still seeking to recoup the money he claimed to have poured into the property.

In February 2026, he filed a civil lawsuit seeking an equitable lien against the house, citing his alleged investment in its renovation.

In effect, the officer who had claimed to be protecting the property was now seeking a financial stake in it – despite the ownership interests subsequently recognized by the court.

The company’s attorney later complained to the Lauderhill Police Department, raising concerns about Sguros’s involvement with the house and his alleged use of information obtained through his official duties.

The investigation eventually drew in the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Deed Fraud Task Force and Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives.

Sguros was arrested Tuesday and faces the five criminal charges.

Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar said the allegations were particularly troubling given the trust placed in police officers.

‘We hold police officers in the highest regard because they take an oath to protect the public,’ he said in a statement to Local 10 News.

‘This case is so troubling because this officer has been charged with using his position to defraud the public.’

He thanked the county’s Crimes Against Property team and the Broward Sheriff’s Office for their detailed investigation.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Lauderhill Police for comment.