Salim Mehajer fined, given good behaviour bond for breaching AVO, negligent driving

Salim Mehajer has been fined $650 and placed on a good behaviour bond for breaching an apprehended violence order his ex-wife took out against him and crashing into her friend’s car.

Salim Mehajer has been fined $650 and placed on a good behaviour bond for breaching an apprehended violence order his ex-wife took out against him and crashing into her friend’s car.

The 32-year-old was slated to begin a hearing at Burwood Local Court on Monday but in a shock twist instead pleaded guilty to negligent driving and contravening the AVO put in place to protect Aysha Learmonth after their marriage ended.

Salim Mehajer and his former wife Aysha Learmonth.

Charges of stalking/intimidating her and dangerous driving were withdrawn.

Dressed in a navy-blue suit with his hair slicked back, the former Auburn deputy mayor smiled in the dock as Magistrate Mark Richardson fined him the $650 and placed him on the 12-month community corrections order after finding both offences were on the “lower end” of seriousness.

Mehajer’s lawyer Steve Kassem tendered a handwritten letter which he read out in court.

“During these offences I was going through a very difficult time of separation with my then 10 year relationship,” it said.

“I was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder which I also believed played a part in my behaviour.

Mehajer first came to attention of the public after holding a lavish wedding with Aysha.

“During my time in custody I have had the time to reflect on my behaviour and evaluate my past actions.”

Mr Kassem said his client had moved on with a new partner.

Learmonth, 32, took out the AVO against Mehajer in July 2016 after the pair separated two months earlier.

Police facts say that about 1am on 20 November 2017 she walked out of her home to meet up with friends who were picking her up when she spotted a white Audi four-wheel-drive and feared it was her estranged husband. She told the two women, Rouba Soueid and Dima Sweid, to leave and went back inside to call triple-0.

Aysha Learmonth later took out an AVO against her former husband. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Mehajer has pleaded guilty to contravening an AVO.

Learmonth then asked her friends to come back and they did a U-turn. But CCTV captures Mehajer crossing onto the other side of the road and blocking them from going further west.

He is then seen in footage doing a U-turn at the roundabout intersection before veering left and crashing into the front of Ms Soueid’s car just 300m from Ms Learmonth’s home.

When he was later interviewed by police he told them he had gone to Brighton that evening to pick up a friend where they had ice cream.

He claimed he was then heading home when he “managed to come across” his estranged wife’s friend’s car.

Mehajer also claimed he had zero knowledge of where Ms Learmonth was living at the time, police facts state.

Mehajer was fined $650 by the court. Picture: Jenny Evans

After being sentenced Mehajer’s father, who sat in the courtroom, asked for permission to shake his son’s hand before he was led away.

The notorious former property developer married Learmonth in a lavish ceremony in which he illegally closed an entire street in Auburn in 2015.

Mehajer hired four helicopters, a jet, a sea plane and a motorcade of luxury sports cars and motorcycles in the extravagant ceremony.

In June last year he was given at least 11 months jail for electoral fraud. He has also been convicted of two separate assaults, including one for throwing an EFTPOS machine at a taxi driver.