Disgraced former politician Salim Mehajer will this week learn how much time will be added onto his already lengthy prison sentence after admitting to staging a car crash in western Sydney.
Mehajer, 38, appeared in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday having pleaded guilty to a string of charges, bringing a long-running saga to its final stages.
Mehajer in July entered guilty pleas to 22 charges, including making a false representation resulting in a police investigation, making a false call for an ambulance, negligent driving and perverting the course of justice.
The charges relate to a staged car accident in Sydney’s west in October 2017 in an effort to avoid appearing before a Local Court hearing.
His black Mercedes AMG smashed into another car at the intersection of Nicholas and Delhi streets in Lidcombe, with television crews at the scene capturing Mehajer being stretchered into an ambulance with his neck in a brace.
He also pleaded guilty to dealing with identity information to commit an indictable offence, relating to him nominating other drivers as being involved in traffic and road infringements.
The matter was slated to go to trial in 2020 before at the 11th hour it was vacated and has been the subject of lengthy legal delays.
After pleading guilty earlier this year, Mehajer faced a sentence hearing before Judge Warwick Hunt on Wednesday.
Mehajer, 38 (pictured in 2020) appeared in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday having pleaded guilty to a string of charges
The charges relate to a staged car accident in Sydney’s west in October 2017 in an effort to avoid appearing before a Local Court hearing. The accident scene is pictured
Mehajer has faced several trials over the last several years and the car crash charges represent the final matter for which he is before the courts.
His barrister, Ian McLachlan, told the court that Mehajer had in 2018 been diagnosed with bipolar, there was a causal connection between his condition and his offending, and he was suffering ‘grandiose thinking’ at the time.
He asked Judge Hunt, who will hand down his sentence on Friday, to backdate Mehajer’s sentence.
‘He’s obviously had a lot of time to think about his previous actions,’ Mr McLachlan said, noting Mehajer had been in custody since November 2020 when he was convicted of two counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of making a false statement under oath.
Mehajer came to the public’s attention in 2015 after his lavish wedding, featuring helicopters, fighter jets and dozens of luxury cars, shut down a street in Lidcombe.
The former Auburn deputy mayor is already in prison after he was found guilty in separate trials for unrelated fraud and domestic violence matters mid last year.
In a decision handed down earlier this year by District Court Judge James Bennett, Mehajer was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and nine months in jail.
Television crews at the scene captured Mehajer (pictured) being stretchered into an ambulance with his neck in a brace following the car crash in October 2017
He was found guilty by a jury in May last year – following a trial in which he represented himself – of six charges comprising multiple counts of assault, one count of intimidation and one count of suffocating.
He was found guilty of assaulting a woman – who cannot be identified – by punching her in the head during an argument in his car, squeezing her hand and crushing her phone, which she was holding, and threatening to kill her mother.
The following month, he was found guilty by a jury of two counts each of making a false document and using a false document.
He was found to have created false documents by forging the signatures of his solicitor, Zali Burrows, and sister.
The offences related to events after he was declared bankrupt in March 2018. When police searched his home and found $6350 in cash, Mehajer subsequently provided an affidavit claiming the money belonged to his sister.
He was sentenced concurrently for both the fraud and domestic violence offences and will be eligible for parole in July next year after serving 3½ years.
His sentences were under a suppression order until he pleaded guilty to the staged car crash charges.
The court was told he had flagged his intention to appeal both his domestic violence and fraud convictions.
He will also next week appear in the Court of Criminal Appeal, where he will argue to be released on bail ahead of his appeal proceedings.
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