The Snitch: Salim Mehajer to start 2025 in jail after appeal for bail fails again

How has Salim Mehajer shot himself in the foot this time? Which colourful accountant is too crook for court? And what’s the reshuffle at the ODPP? The Snitch is here.

Remember Salim Mehajer? The ex-Auburn deputy mayor who went down in a screaming heap after throwing a wedding that closed off his street?

Well, he’s not getting out of jail for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Behind bars and with time on his hands, Mehajer has turned his attention to demonstrating that he is also not very good at running legal applications in court.

He represented himself in an attempt to reopen his bail application in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, which was hosed out by a three-judge panel on December 20.

Mehajer is serving two jail terms, one of which is a maximum seven years and nine months sentence for the horrific assault of a woman who cannot legally be identified.

Somehow Salim Mehajer has not been jailed for fashion crimes. Picture: Joel Carrett

He is appealing both convictions and wants bail while his challenge progresses through the courts.

Mehajer had two attempts at getting bail this month — and was rejected both times.

The first was in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) on December 6.

Undeterred, Mehajer wrote to the CCA on December 13 asking the court to reopen his appeal for bail.

Mehajer claimed his bail application had to be reheard because the previous one was decided using outdated submissions from a previous application — and he also blamed the prosecutor.

The three-judge panel in the CCA pointed out that it was Mehajer who used the submissions in the most recent court hearing when he stood and addressed the court orally.

Things have gone downhill for Mehajer since his very public wedding — which he arrived at in a helicopter. Picture: Toby Zerna

Mehajer told the CCA judges he wrongly relied on the material because of his “emotional/mental breakdown during oral submissions”.

Mehajer’s appeal was rejected after the judges ruled that many of the issues from the previous bail application overlapped with the most recent one.

TOO CROOK FOR COURT

Fresh from being mentioned in two of Australia’s biggest tax fraud cases, Sydney accountant Filomena Kyriacou has found her own drama.

This time it is with the Commonwealth Bank, which is suing Ms Kyriacou in the Supreme Court over a loan topping $779,000 that it says has gone unpaid.

Filomena Kyriacou

Ms Kyriacou and her firm, Wentworth Williams, were repeatedly mentioned in court as being linked professionally or socially to Adam Cranston and George Alex, who were jailed for ripping off the tax office by $110 million and $10 million respectively.

Ms Kyriacou was not accused of wrongdoing in either of those cases.

The CBA is now moving to get its lawsuit moving, but Ms Kyriacou has put up some resistance.

This month, she was unsuccessful in an application to have the case delayed on mental health grounds.

CBA claims Ms Kyriacou owes the money because of an agreement that was entered into in 2015.

But the court was told Ms Kyriacou claims her “her signature was forged” on documents that set up the financial agreement.

With the hearing looming, Ms Kyriacou filed a notice of motion on November 25 seeking to delay, with her documents “indicating” she is “not mentally fit to stand trial”, Justice Nicholas Chen told the court.

Adam Cranston. Picture: Peter Rae

George Alex. Picture: Simon Bullard.

With no evidence of when Ms Kyriacou would be in a state for the case to proceed, Justice Chen opted to run the ball up straight away.

The main reason being that if the case does not start now, they could be waiting until 2026 to get on.

“Given the history of the litigation in this court, when the cause of action is said to have arisen, and when the proceedings were commenced, they reinforce why I consider the dictates of justice are against adjourning the matter,” Justice Chen told the court.

Ms Kyriacou was ordered to pay the CBA’s legal costs for the application.

The matter continues.

DPP SHUFFLE

We’re hearing there is set to be a shuffling of the decks at Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC’s office.

Rumours wafting out of the state’s prosecuting office seem to indicate a bolstering of experience at the pointy end of the ODPP with the addition of Supreme Court Justice Helen Wilson.

We’re told Justice Wilson will join the ODPP as a deputy director after a 10-year tenure in the Supreme Court.

We’re told she will be stepping in for departing acting deputy director Michelle England.

Ms Dowling sent an email to the troops advising of Ms England’s departure in recent weeks.

Got a Snitch? Email [e-mail]