Corrupt driving instructor Jawad Joe Dimachki used bribes to fund ‘hedonistic extracurricular activities’

An Adelaide driving instructor who accepted bribes in exchange for licences used the funds on “hedonistic extracurricular activities”, a court has heard.

• Dimachki took cash for passing people’s drivers’ licence test...
• ... some of his clients dodged jail over licence scam...
• While his mother was alleged one of those who bribed him

An Adelaide driving instructor who accepted cash bribes in exchange for licences used the funds on “hedonistic extra-curricular activities”, a court has heard.

Jawad Joe Dimachki, 38, has pleaded guilty in the District Court to multiple corruption offences relating to abuse of his position to secure benefits.

The court heard on Thursday the scheme made Dimachki $15,750 over three months in 2017.

Prosecutor Leah O’Donnell said Dimachki’s reasoning that he used the money to fund care for his special-needs son was a “poorly justified excuse”.

Ms O’Donnell said during Dimachki’s offending he was spending an average of $173 per week on his son but an average of $250 on “personal greed-related activities”.

Jawad Joe Dimachki outside court during an earlier appearance. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“The fact is he had an expensive extra-curricular habit that, for obvious reasons, he needed to fund independently,” she said.

“The very nature of the hedonistic activities he was engaged in, in my submission, shows his family was not at the forefront of his mind.”

Ms O’Donnell said Dimachki’s scheme came unstuck after authorities noticed an unusually high pass rate among his licence test candidates.

The court has previously heard he issued licences to people without ever making them take tests, including to one driver he had never met.

That driver, Abdul Kajani, and the friend who paid the bribe, Ethan Quadros, last year received suspended sentences for their involvement in the scam.

Ms O’Donnell said on Thursday young people make up a disproportionately high percentage of the road toll and a person on a provisional licence had a far greater chance of being involved in a crash.

“Mr Dimachki, by issuing those provisional licences in the way that he did, has put people who are already at an elevated risk of death or serious injury at heightened risk,” she said.

Ms O’Donnell said an immediate prison term was the only appropriate sentence but Noah Redmond, for Dimachki, said his lack of prior convictions, his remorse, family situation and early plea made him a good candidate for a suspended or home detention sentence.

Mr Redmond said there was a legitimate significant shortfall between NDIS funding and the cost of caring for his son over a number of years.

Judge Michael Boylan did not order a home detention suitability report and continued Dimachki’s bail to reappear before the court later this month.