Salim Mehajer charged after allegedly grabbing prison officer

THE disgraced ex-deputy mayor is in hot water after allegedly grabbing a warder at Cooma jail where he is serving time for rigging an election.

DISGRACED one-time deputy mayor Salim Mehajer has been charged following a prison fracas where he is alleged to have assaulted an officer.

The property developer is serving an 11 month sentence for electoral fraud at the Cooma Correctional Facility in southern NSW.

The episode on Friday has landed Mehajer, who once served on western Sydney’s now defunct Auburn Council, in solitary confinement.

The Daily Telegraph has reported the incident occurred during an altercation in his prison cell.

“A 32-year-old inmate has been charged internally after allegedly grabbing a prison officer by the wrist at Cooma Correctional Centre last week,” a spokeswoman for Corrective Services NSW told news.com.au.

“The inmate has been placed on a 14-day segregation order.”

Salim Mehajer is taken from a prison truck to Burwood court in July. Picture: John Grainger.

Last month, police successfully applied to have Mehajer’s legs photographed by police in prison.

The force believes they can match one leg covered with distinctive tattoos to those of a leg caught on CCTV video during an alleged cash handover.

News.com.au understands Mehajer’s right leg may have tattoos of a woman resembling Mehajer’s former wife, dollar signs, the initials “SM” and the word “millionaire”.

A police affidavit revealed that investigators have CCTV footage of person at a meeting “where $1250 is exchanged”, which shows “a large leg tattoo the length of the entire leg”.

Police alleged the cash swap meeting is connected with a car crash Mehajer is charged with staging last October to avoid a court hearing.

Mehajer’s luck in avoiding jail time ran out in June when he was convicted of rigging a council election in Auburn.

Cooma Correctional Centre where Salim Mehajer is incarcerated.

A Sydney magistrate previously found he acted in a “joint criminal enterprise” with his sister Fatima to fix the 2012 council elections by submitting false online applications to the Australian Electoral Commission which placed family who lived elsewhere in the electorate so they could vote.

It was that election which led to him becoming the deputy mayor.

In handing down the sentence, Magistrate Beverley Schurr imposed a 21 month jail term with a non-parole period of 11 months, on Mehajer to “reflect the serious criminality”.

“Only a full custodial sentence is appropriate in this case,” Ms Schurr said.

Following the judgement, Salim Mehajer was placed in handcuffs and led away by three uniformed court officers.

“I might see you soon,” Mehajer said to media as he made his first steps towards his new home for the next year.

He will be eligible for parole on May 21, 2019. His legal team had vowed to appeal the sentence.

In July, he was denied bail pending an appeal over his jail sentence for electoral fraud.