Inside Salim Mehajer’s rise and fall, from wild wedding to years in jail
Salim Mehajer, a little-known politician from Sydney’s west, exploded into the public consciousness in August 2015. Within years, things had taken a turn for the worst.
When Salim Mehajer hired four helicopters, a fleet of luxury cars, a seaplane, a fighter jet, a camera crew and closed off a Lidcombe street for what was dubbed Australia’s most expensive wedding, he shot into Australia’s consciousness.
Before then, he was a little-known politician from Sydney’s west serving on Auburn’s city council.
After the media firestorm, he became a household name and over the last several years he has battled a series of legal serious criminal charges in a long-running saga which finally came to an end this week.
Today, he sits in a cell in John Morony Correctional Centre in Sydney’s northwest where he is serving a lengthy prison sentence, much of which has been spent in solitary confinement.
On Tuesday, his last outstanding criminal matter was finalised when he was sentenced to a jail term for a bizarre plot to stage a car crash seven years ago.
As it stands, his earliest release from prison is the middle of next year.
This week, as he finally learned his earliest possible release date, he thanked a judge for a “second chance”.
“EXPLOSION OF NARCISSISM”
Mehajer’s August 2015 wedding reportedly cost $1.4m and for months the lavish ceremony made headlines across the country.
But it also painted a target on his back.
Vision of drummers, a wedding cake taller than most of the 500 guests and a fleet of luxury cars turned heads.
One fellow Auburn councillor labelled it an “explosion of narcissism”.
He angered locals by shutting down a street and posting flyers to residents falsely claiming that their car would be towed if they got in the way.
After a council investigation, he was fined $220 for shutting the street down without council permission.
Mehajer drew even more attention months later when in a bizarre television interview claimed he intended to run for Prime Minister.
He was later mocked for his announcement after he appeared with his wife by his side and speaking behind a lectern.
“I would like to start off by being in state, federal and I would like to make my way up to the very top spot. That would be my dream come true,” Mehajer said.
“I don’t believe I have what it takes to be a superstar but see what happens. If an opportunity knocks on my door I am always willing for a challenge.”
“ONLY GOD CAN BANKRUPT ME”
In 2018, Mehajer was driven into bankruptcy by a slew of unpaid creditors, including a company which constructed an marble staircase in his Lidcombe mansion.
In a post on Snapchat, he had boldly declared: “Only God can bankrupt me!”.
But that wasn’t the case.
A Federal Circuit Court judge declared him bankrupt and he was found to have owed creditors about $24m.
In October 2017, a District Court judge found Mehajer had failed to pay nearly $600,000 to Prime Marble & Granite for the construction of a marble staircase at his Lidcombe mansion.
The opulent stonework famously once featured in a Bow Wow music video, in which the rapper danced in front of the staircase as several women gyrated in the background.
Mehajer was ordered by District Court Judith Gibson to pay $668,276, as well as the construction company’s legal costs.
Judge Gibson also slammed Mehajer after he failed to show up to court.
“The plaintiff constructed a marble palace in accordance with the defendant’s instructions, the exquisiteness of which is not in dispute,” Judge Gibson said in a written judgment.
“This is one of those rare cases where the court should make an order for indemnity costs of the proceedings, not to punish the defendant, but in response to the wholly unsatisfactory way in which the defendant has conducted the case at all relevant times.”
Mehajer was served a bankruptcy notice over a $200,000 debt and the petition was supported by Prime Marble & Granite.
ELECTORAL FRAUD
In June 2018, Mehajer was jailed after he was convicted of electoral fraud relating to his run for the Auburn council, on which he served as deputy mayor.
Mehajer and his sister registered voters despite the people living outside the electorate boundaries.
Magistrate Beverley Schurr said his offences struck “at the heart of the democratic electoral system.”
His sister, Fatima Mehajer, also pleaded guilty to 77 counts of giving false or misleading information to the Australian Electoral Commission. She was given a two-month suspended jail sentence.
He was convicted of 77 counts of electoral fraud and sentenced by magistrate Schurr to a maximum of 21 months in prison.
He was released from prison after serving 11 months, but a year and a half later he would be back in jail, where he has remained ever since.
MEHAJER’S RETURN TO JAIL
In November 2020, he was jailed again after being found guilty for lying to a court.
He was convicted of two counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of making a false statement under oath following a judge alone trial.
The case centred on the former Auburn deputy mayor’s lies in affidavits and under cross-examination which he used to secure relaxed bail conditions.
He had claimed he needed a curfew lifted to fulfil his job as a building manager at a development site.
But, the court heard, he never held the position.
He was found guilty by Judge Peter Zahra and jailed for a maximum of three and a half years.
Since that sentence was handed down, he has been jailed a further two times for separate offences.
“THAT’S WHAT GANGSTERS DO”
Mid last year, Mehajer was found guilty in separate trials for unrelated fraud and domestic violence matters.
In a decision handed down earlier this year by District Court Judge James Bennett, Mehajer was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and nine months in jail.
He was found guilty by a jury in May last year - following a trial in which he represented himself - of six charges comprising multiple counts of assault, one count of intimidation and one count of suffocating.
He was found guilty of assaulting a woman - who cannot be identified - by punching her in the head during an argument in his car, squeezing her hand and crushing her phone, which she was holding, and threatening to kill her mother.
“He began telling me in detail that if I ever went to the police he would come for me and then he said, ‘no, no, I’ll come for your mother first’,” the woman told the court.
“He told me that’s what gangsters do. They don’t kill the person they want first, they kill their family and make them watch.”
The court was told that he threatened to “put a bullet through her mother’s head”.
The following month, he was found guilty by a jury of two counts each of making a false document and using a false document.
He was found to have created false documents by forging the signatures of his solicitor, Zali Burrows, and sister.
He was sentenced concurrently for both the fraud and domestic violence offences and will be eligible for parole in July next year after serving three and a half years.
He has flagged his intention to appeal both his domestic violence and fraud convictions.
THE CAR CRASH
On Tuesday, Mehajer once again appeared in court to be sentenced after pleading guilty to his role in a bizarre staged car crash in an attempt to duck a court appearance.
Mehajer in July entered guilty pleas to 22 charges including perverting the course of justice, making a false representation resulting in a police investigation, making a false call for an ambulance and negligent driving.
He admitted to staging the car accident in Sydney’s west in October 2017, with the court hearing that Mehajer orchestrated the incident in a bid to delay his court appearance for an unrelated criminal matter for assaulting a taxi driver.
His Mercedes was involved in a crash with a Mitsubishi Outlander at the intersection of Nicholas and Delhi streets in Lidcombe, with television crews at the scene capturing Mehajer being stretchered into an ambulance with his neck in a brace.
He told investigators the other car ran a stop sign, but investigators found holes in his story.
His accomplices in the other car were offered financial reward for their roles in the scheme, the court heard.
Judge Warwick Hunt took into account his scheme did not result in Mehajer escaping a court hearing – rather it was only adjourned for three months.
Mehajer also pleaded guilty to dealing with identity information to commit an indictable offence relating to him falsely nominating other people as the drivers involved in traffic infringements.
The court was told Mehajer was only behind the wheel on one of the occasions.
He was on Tuesday sentenced by Judge Hunt to a maximum of two years for the offences, with a non-parole period of 16 months.
His earliest release for the matters was set at 14 December this year.
However his non-parole period for the fraud and domestic violence matters does not expire until July next year.
“I’m extremely grateful for giving me a second chance,” Mehajer told Judge Hunt after he was sentenced on Tuesday afternoon.
Jury retires in trial of cop who tasered 95yo
The jury has retired to consider their verdict in the manslaughter trial of a police officer who fatally tasered a 95-year-old woman in a nursing home.
Beloved Aussie dead after three-word request
The young man who was stabbed to death near a popular nightspot has been remembered as a “remarkable friend”.
Mundine’s court win after Covid stoush
NRL star turned champion boxer Anthony Mundine has celebrated the end of a years-long legal battle after being found guilty of flouting Covid restrictions.