Rahim ‘CJ’ Mundine convicted of disqualified driving
The rising star boxer son of Australian sporting legend Anthony Mundine has been convicted of a driving offence after an odd court appearance in which he was unable to respond to his name.
Central Coast
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The son of NRL and boxing great Anthony Mundine was convicted of driving while disqualified “in his absence” after refusing to answer a magistrate’s direct questions.
Rahim “CJ” Mundine, 23, faced Gosford Local Court on Tuesday and bizarrely asked “Do I have permission to board the ship?” when directed to the tall microphone at the bar table where self-represented litigants address the court.
It was the first in a series of peculiar interactions, which led to one of his supporters being escorted out of court by a NSW Sheriffs officer, before a fed up magistrate convicted Mundine junior in his absence.
All the while his dad, Mundine senior, watched on from the public gallery.
When Mundine junior approached the microphone Magistrate Kirralee Perry asked “are you Rahim Mundine” to which Mundine began mumbling about “rank” and “name”.
After a long day on the bench Ms Perry was having none of it, and cut him off before he could start reading from a piece of paper in his hand.
“Are you Rahim Mundine? Because if you’re not you can wait at the back of the court,” Ms Perry said.
Mundine junior tried to counter punch again, mumbling something, possibly in another language, among the audible words of “rank” and “name”.
Ms Perry again cut him short before an unknown supporter wearing a T-shirt embossed with the Aboriginal flag stood up and said he was Mundine junior’s advocate.
“No, you’re not. You have no standing in this court,” Ms Perry fired back.
The man rattled off some quasi-legal argument before Ms Perry asked a sheriff to escort him out of court.
After Mundine junior refused to confirm his identity on the record a third time, Ms Perry told him to sit and asked a court officer to call Rahim Mundine three times on the public announcement system.
After there was “no appearance at 4.18pm” Ms Perry convicted him “in his absence” of driving while disqualified.
She told the court a set of police facts states Mundine junior was directed to stop at a RBT at Wyoming, near Gosford, on February 19.
She said he told officers his name was Rahim Mundine and checks revealed he had been banned from driving from November 29, 2024, until February 28, 2025, because of a demerit points suspension.
Ms Perry said he was convicted of another drive while disqualified on August 29, 2023, making this “a second offence”.
She fined Mundine junior $1000 and disqualified him for a further 12 months.
Mundine junior’s responses, and that of his supporters, had all the hallmarks of the sovereign citizen movement.
Asking permission to come aboard in court is an application of speech often made by so-called sovereign citizens, who often reject the application of a state or country’s laws to them as they have revoked their consent, and sometimes subscribe to maritime law instead.
The Daily Telegraph does not suggest Mundine is a sovereign citizen or that he subscribes to that ideology, only that he asked permission to come aboard during his court proceedings and was unable to identify himself by his name when asked.
Mundine junior was once a promising junior rugby league player who was last season linked to the Rabbitohs pathways program.
In 2022 he won his first professional boxing match on the Sonny Bill Williams versus Barry Hall undercard on March 23.
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