Salim Mehajer reveals $20m debts as judge slaps down social media plea
A judge has slapped down Salim Mehajer’s plea to be allowed back on to social media as he awaits trial for fraud and prescription drug charges. It comes as the disgraced former mayor also revealed his struggles to resolve massive debts.
Central Sydney
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Sydney. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Isolation renos of Sydney's rich and famous
- Man sues cruise liner after being held on rape allegation
Disgraced former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer has asked a court to allow him back on social media as he awaits trial for fraud and prescription drug charges.
He also told the Supreme Court on Tuesday at a hearing to relax his bail conditions that he was currently trying to resolve $20 million in debt – most of which was owed to the Australian Taxation Office – as part of his bankruptcy proceedings.
Mehajer, 33, was found guilty in April 2018 of being part of a 2012 electoral fraud plot that helped put him on Auburn City Council.
Mehajer, who once went on national television to declare his desire to become prime minister, was jailed for electoral fraud and spent 11 months in prison before being released in May 2019.
He is now on bail awaiting trial for separate charges which relate to an alleged car crash scam in October 2017, allegedly using a falsified letter in an attempt to get bail in March 2018, and allegedly supplying prohibited prescription drugs.
Mehajer appeared via telephone in the Supreme Court in Sydney on Tuesday and applied for his bail conditions to be relaxed.
He successfully applied to have his reporting conditions reduced to five days per week to police, but the rest of his requests were refused by Justice Desmond Fagan.
Those requests included having access to social media, being able to live at a home in Lidcombe as well as his current residence in Kirribilli, to have his curfew relaxed so he could get to work earlier each day, and to have better access to the internet.
Justice Fagan refused most of the application and said of his request to access social media “I do not regard it as significantly oppressive that you cannot access Twitter or Facebook”.
He also said Mehajer should regard himself as “having done pretty well” to be granted bail while facing the allegations against him.
Despite being declared bankrupt in April 2018 by the Federal Court, Mehajer also mentioned in court that he had the assets to resolve his debts, which he said amounted to about $20 million most of which was owed to the ATO.