Ali Elskaf: Cecil Hills car salesman convicted over speeding on M5

A trove of Instagram evidence helped police convict a car salesman caught speeding up to 100km/h over the limit in a series of luxury cars.

A car salesman who posted videos of his reckless speeding on social media put the lives of emergency workers in danger as he hooned along a road closed during the 2020 bushfires, a court has heard

Ali Elskaf, of Cecil Hills, was convicted on Monday at Hornsby Local Court of four counts of reckless driving, despite pleading not guilty to all these offences.

The court heard Elskaf’s first speeding offence occurred on January 4 2020 at Beverly Hills when he was caught driving 75 km/h over the limit in a white Mercedes Benz.

The very next day, Elskaf was once again caught hooning 89 km/h over the speed limit on the M5 Motorway at Moorebank.

Car salesman Ali Elskaf was convicted over a series of reckless driving offences.

Two months later, Elskaf was hit with two fresh reckless driving offences.

On the night of March 11, Elskaf hooned along the M5 motorway at Milperra “at a speed dangerous to the public” in a grey Audi SQ5.

A week later, on March 18, Elskaf drove 211 km/h in a 100 km/h zone in a silver Mercedes Benz.

In court, Elskaf’s defence lawyer said a “substantial period of time” had elapsed since Elskaf was last caught speeding.

He also noted his clients lack of serious driving offences preceding these four incidents.

But Magistrate Aleksandar Mijovic said community safety could not be ignored.

Elskaf was caught driving 211 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.

Mr Mijovic told the court Elskaf’s speeding on January 5 2020 was “at the very top end of the seriousness of (these) offences” because the M5 was closed at that time due to bushfires.

“You put them (the emergency services) in danger,” Mr Mijovic said.

The court also heard Elskaf uploaded videos of this reckless driving on his Instagram account, providing crucial evidence in the police case against him.

“Maybe it’s because I’m from a different generation but I still can’t understand why people take shots of themselves committing offences and then put it on social media,” Mr Mijovic said.

“But it makes the police job so much easier.”

Elskaf was convicted on all four counts.

For his crimes Elskaf was sentenced to a two year jail sentence, to be served in the community by way of an intensive corrections order.

He is also disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for three years and must complete 800 hours of community service work.

Elskaf has previously made headlines after NSW Police was dropped charges against him.

In 2005, Elskaf was accused by police of being part of a mob which attacked police and ambulance officers at Brighton-Le-Sands on December 11 in revenge attacks after the Cronulla riots.

The charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence and NSW Police was ordered to cover his $5500 legal bill.