SA driving instructor Jawad Joe Dimachki’s full deception revealed

Five years after dodgy Joe’s driver’s licence scheme went belly up, the extent of his deception can be detailed – at least, all that the police will allow you to see.

It’s a tale of corruption, greed, surveillance, hidden listening devices, bundles of cash, lies, sex, brothels, hedonism and abuse of power.

But it didn’t unfold in the political world, or within the byzantine halls of the public service – it happened in the seldom-considered realm of driving instruction.

From September 2017 through to October this year, SA Police and prosecutors have been unravelling the tangled web of corrupt driving instructor Jawad Joe Dimachki.

His scheme was simple – for between $400 and $500 cash, he would give anyone a guaranteed pass on their final driving test.

It didn’t matter if you were nervous, so incompetent you could barely operate the car, or even physically present – if you had the cash, Joe had you covered.

Dimachki came unstuck after authorities noticed an unusually high pass rate among his licence test candidates.

That put SA Police’s Anti Corruption Branch on a trail that started with Dimachki under surveillance and ended with him in jail, his mother in handcuffs and his students in the dock.

Now that Dimachki’s final customer has faced court, the full story of his fall can be told – at least, as much of the story as is publicly known.

Plea bargains struck between prosecution and defence counsel make it unlikely we will ever hear details of 99 of Dimachki’s 109 corruption charges.

And to this day, SA Police are reticent to discuss the case, declining The Advertiser’s requests for information and interviews with detectives.

Nonetheless, Dimachki’s web stands as one of the best examples of how corruption can work in South Australia – in the corner, out of the way, to fund yet another trip to the massage parlour.

The mastermind

Jawad Joe Dimachki was the mastermind.

The file: 

When Jawad Joe Dimachki was arrested on September 23, 2017, SA Police were tight-lipped about the case.

In court a month later, all they would reveal was his dozens of charges related to his alleged conduct “as an authorised examiner, responsible for testing candidates for driver’s licences”.

It was not until December 7, 2017, that the public understood the scope of not only the case against Dimachki, but also his desperation to stay out of jail.

On that day, Dimachki’s counsel had the case called on so their client could enter very early guilty pleas to 10 of the 109 charges.

That secured him a 40 per cent discount off his eventual sentence and, his counsel openly admitted, the hope prosecutors would consider withdrawing the other charges.

They did and, almost a year later, the District Court heard Dimachki issued licences to young people without making them sit tests in exchange for cash bribes.

In one case, he never even met the person he certified as a safe driver – a crime which, prosecutors said, had put all road users at risk.

Dimachki admitted making $15,750 over three months in 2017 but pleaded for understanding, saying he spent the money on his special-needs son.

Unfortunately for Dimachki, that wasn’t the whole truth – and the prosecution knew it.

They revealed he had actually spent the bulk of the money on what they euphemistically dubbed “personal greed-related activities”.

Granting Dimachki more decorum and privacy than he might otherwise have deserved, they said only that his “expensive extra-curricular activities” were somewhat “hedonistic”.

Dimachki’s last dalliance with dishonesty torpedoed any chance of a suspended or home detention sentence.

In March 2019, Judge Michael Boylan not only jailed him for six years, with a non-parole period of two years and nine months, but lifted the covers off his expenditure.

“You spent some of the money on massage parlours and escort agencies,” he said.

“You have brought shame upon your family, you have publicly humiliated your wife and your children.

“One can only hope that the circles in which they move contain people that will lend them the support they will very much need.”

The matriarch

Ibitsam Dimachki was the matriarch of the operation.

The file

Dimachki tried to use his son as a shield when it came to sentencing, but another member of his family – his mother – was a paying client.

Among the many people on Dimachki’s bribery books was his own mother Ibtisam who, like her son, worked in driving instruction.

She would have her students meet with Dimachki so he could test them, but he would only sit briefly with them in the car and then leave.

His destination was a meeting with his mother, where he would accept and sign off on the students’ certificates of compliance.

Ibtisam would then give the certificates to the students, saying Jawad was “satisfied with her report” that they were competent.

Unfortunately for the duo, each of their meetings happened under the watchful surveillance of the Anti-Corruption Branch.

Ibtisam’s phone, meanwhile, provided a record of all their text messages that showed, in their own words, they knew their actions were illegal.

In late 2018, Ibtisam was charged with having bribed her son during the peak of his offending – on July 20, July 29 and August 26, 2017.

Ibtisam did not endear herself to the Adelaide Magistrates Court, however, when she failed to attend each of her first three hearing dates.

Her counsel asked for the court’s indulgence each time, blaming either unspecified and ongoing illness or “severe depression and anxiety” for her absence.

In January 2019, the court warned her – through counsel – that non-attendance was punishable with another arrest and, in August that year, she finally stepped into the dock.

Just like her son, Ibtisam’s primary concern was to broker a plea bargain and ensure she stayed out of jail.

Unlike her son, she was successful – the court suspended her nine-month prison term on condition of a two-year, $1000 good behaviour bond.

The scaredy cat

Abdul Kajani faced court for his role.

The file: 

When Abdul Kajani sat behind the wheel of a car his heart raced, his palms sweated, and it was clearly something that wasn’t for him.

So scared and anxious was he of driving, and the test that he would need to pass to be able to do so legally, he managed to flout it entirely.

And when somebody wanted to flout a driving test in Adelaide in 2017, there was only one man to turn to – Joe Dimachki.

Rather than take to the roads and learn the ins and outs of driving – when to merge, when to give-way, how long to indicate for, and not to sit in the godforsaken right hand lane – Kajani stumped up $450 and managed to convince his mate to sit the test for him.

Although, it’s hard to know exactly what could be tested by another man taking a test for a person the driving instructor has never met?

Regardless, that’s what happened and the rest, as they say, was history.

Kajani got his P-plates and managed to cruise his way around Adelaide, endangering the lives of South Australians in the process, according to Judge Michael Boylan.

“It was easier to pay for his licence rather than to sit for it legitimately, which shows his arrogance and his disregard for the law,” prosecutor Leah O’Donnell told Judge Boylan.

Her argument was Kajani’s offences were among the most serious of those who used the services of dodgy Joe.

“He could have sat the logbook method, but there’s a high cost associated with that … Kajani got his licence quicker and easier by engaging in bribery,” she said.

“This is a serious, arrogant and blatant example of offending.”

Judge Boylan convicted Kajani and handed him a suspended four month and six day prison sentence, the same as what he gave his mate Ethan Quadros, who you will learn about below.

The foolish friend

Ethan Quadros was ensnared in the criminal web.

The file: 

Ethan Quadros could be mistaken as a good friend who wanted to help out his mate.

But realistically what he was doing was misguided and had the potential to cause the death or serious injury of anybody who happened to come across his bumbling mate’s untested driving.

Quadros was inextricably linked to Abdul Kajani insofar as his offending, his sentence, his disregard for the rule of law, and his “damage” to himself and his family.

When Kajani, despite knowing he had a guaranteed pass because had bribed his driving instructor, was still too “anxious” to sit the test, he turned to Quadros.

Young Quadros took it upon himself to get Kajani his illegitimate licence.

But such was Dimachki’s blatant disregard for the power vested within him, he didn’t even care that the person whose name was on the test he would sign off was not the person sitting in his vehicle.

Quadros even drove himself to the meeting, and Dimachki, believing he was the unlicensed Kajani, commented he was “ballsy” to do so.

In an incestuous twist, Quadros had only years prior been certified to drive by the one-and-only Dimachki.

Despite eventually realising Quadros was not Kajani, it mattered little as dodgy Joe’s corruption appeared to know no bounds.

“This is not for me, it’s for my mate”, Quadros told Dimachki.

“Who is going to sign it?” Dimachki said.

After taking the test for his friend, signing the subsequent documents, and driving back home to deliver the form to Kajani, counsel for Quadros told the court his client still was “astonished” to learn what he had done amounted to corruption.

But ignorance, as the saying goes, is not a defence, and Quadros nevertheless received his penance from Judge Boylan.

The customer

Abeir Bassam Said paid Dimachki for her licence.

The file:

Her fleeting interaction was almost as fleeting as her court appearances, but nonetheless, 19-year-old Para Vista woman Abeir Bassam Said was entangled in Dimachki’s snare.

Between September 13 and 26 of 2017, Said was desperate enough for her driver’s licence that she thought bribery was the best way to get it.

She was sprung, and faced court, after Quadros and Kajani, and would no doubt have let out a sigh of relief when Magistrate Elizabeth Sheppard delivered her verdict and penalised her for her actions.

Despite coughing up what was inevitably a handsome sum of money for her driver’s licence, it would prove to be in vain as Ms Sheppard suspended it anyway.

From 4.16pm on November 13, 2018, Said’s dalliance with the other side of the law came crashing down as her licence was cut up.

She escaped without a conviction, and landed herself a 12-month good behaviour bond worth $200 and a driving history forever tarnished by the day she headed along to see Jawad Joe Dimachki for her own “guaranteed pass”.

The immature apprentice

Lachlan Haines came to justice years later.

The file:

In September 2017, Haines, desperately needing a licence but finding it hard to get one by successfully passing a test, makes contact with Dimachki.

He’s just been given the opportunity at a carpentry apprenticeship, but to do so he needs to be able to drive.

He’s been told about Dimachki by friends from school, and he eventually makes the fateful decision to give his $500 for a “guaranteed pass”.

Haines shows up on the day of his test, fully aware of Dimachki’s deceptive system.

“Are we just going to go for a bit of a cruise?” he asks the instructor.

A “cruise” was not always typical, but Dimachki had caught wind he might have been in the crosshairs of the authorities, so actually putting the car into gear was required on this occasion.

The pair chatted about how Haines how he had previously failed “legit” tests, and whether Dimachki had been “audited much”.

All the while, a covert recording device was capturing every word of their conversation.

Years later, Haines would be the final person to become entangled in Dimachki’s web.

After moving interstate, and years of back and forth, Magistrate John Well would ensconce Haines into “ranks of immature young men who have done something very unwise”.

In doing so, he would tell him to do 60 hours of community service, but not give him a fine or conviction.