Disgraced former politician Salim Mehajer will learn this week how much time will be added to his already lengthy prison sentence after admitting to orchestrating a car crash in Sydney’s west.
Mehajer, 38, appeared in Sydney’s Downing Center District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a series of charges, bringing a long-running saga into its final stages.
Mehajer entered guilty pleas in July to 22 charges, including making a false statement resulting in a police investigation, making a false call for an ambulance, careless driving and perverting the course of justice.
The charge relates to a staged car crash in Sydney’s west in October 2017 in an attempt to avoid appearing before a local court hearing.
His black Mercedes AMG crashed into another car at the intersection of Nicholas and Delhi streets in Lidcombe, while television crews at the scene captured Mehajer being carried into an ambulance with his neck in a brace.
He also pleaded guilty to dealing with identifying information to commit a criminal offence, implicating other drivers as being involved in road and traffic offences.
The case was due to go to trial in 2020 before being cleared at the eleventh hour and the subject of lengthy legal delays.
After pleading guilty earlier this year, Mehajer was sentenced before Judge Warwick Hunt on Wednesday.
Mehajer, 38 (pictured in 2020) appeared in Sydney’s Downing Center District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a series of charges
The charge relates to a staged car crash in Sydney’s west in October 2017 in an attempt to avoid appearing before a local court hearing. The scene of the accident is shown
Mehajer has faced several lawsuits in recent years and the car accident charges are the latest case for which he has to appear in court.
His lawyer, Ian McLachlan, told the court that Mehajer had been diagnosed with bipolar in 2018, that there was a causal link between his condition and his offending, and that he was suffering from “grandiose thinking” at the time.
He asked Judge Hunt, who will hand down his sentence on Friday, to retroactively date Mehajer’s sentence.
“He has clearly had a lot of time to reflect on his previous actions,” Mr McLachlan said, noting that Mehajer had been in custody since November 2020 when he was convicted of two charges of perverting the course of justice and one charge of making a false statement. under oath.
Mehajer came to public attention in 2015 after his lavish wedding, with helicopters, fighter jets and dozens of luxury cars, closed off a street in Lidcombe.
The former deputy mayor of Auburn is already in prison after being found guilty in separate trials of unrelated fraud and domestic violence charges in separate trials mid-last year.
In a ruling earlier this year by District Court Judge James Bennett, Mehajer was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and nine months in prison.
Television crews on the scene filmed Mehajer (pictured) as he was carried into an ambulance with his neck in a brace after the car crash in October 2017
He was found guilty by a jury in May last year – after a trial in which he represented himself – of six charges, including multiple charges of assault, one charge of intimidation and one charge of suffocation.
He was found guilty of assaulting a woman – who cannot be identified – by hitting her on the head during an argument in his car, squeezing her hand and crushing her phone, which she was holding, and threatening to kill her to kill mother.
The following month he was found guilty by a jury of making a false document and using a false document.
He was found to have created false documents by forging the signatures of his attorney, Zali Burrows, and his sister.
The offenses related to events after he was declared bankrupt in March 2018. When police searched his home and found $6,350 in cash, Mehajer then provided an affidavit claiming the money belonged to his sister.
He was convicted concurrently of both fraud and domestic violence and will be eligible for parole in July next year after serving 3½ years.
His sentence was under a suppression order until he pleaded guilty to the staged car accident charge.
The court was told he had indicated he intended to appeal his convictions for domestic violence and fraud.
He will also appear before the Court of Criminal Appeal next week, where he will argue for his release on bail ahead of his appeal hearing.