Salim Mehajer’s taxi assault case adjourned for the final time

SALIM Mehajer will need to sort his legal problems out because time is almost up for the ex-deputy mayor.

SALIM Mehajer was given a final warning to get his act together when he appeared in court today, without a lawyer, on an assault charge.

The former Auburn deputy mayor was supposed to have a hearing for allegedly assaulting a taxi driver this week but the matter was adjourned yesterday when his legal representative Brett Galloway withdrew citing an “ethical dilemma”.

That left the 31-year-old until today to get a lawyer sorted. When he appeared in Downing Centre Local Court this morning, Mr Mehajer told Magistrate Vivian Swain he had spoken to a legal aid lawyer “but they haven’t showed up”.

The property developer told the court yesterday he had not been able to pay Mr Galloway because he didn’t have access to his bank accounts while he is in custody on other matters.

The suggestion he had no money was disputed by Mr Galloway, who said his withdrawal was not a money issue, and by the police prosecutor Amin Assaad, who said it should be taken with a “very, very large grain of salt”.

Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer will be back in court later this month.

Today Mr Assaad said he thought it was “very unlikely” Mr Mehajer would “meet the means test for [legal aid] assistance”.

Mr Mehajer is accused of taking a taxi driver’s​ Eftpos machine and throwing it at his head during an altercation at The Star casino in the early hours of April 2 last year.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, larceny to the value of $2000, destroy or damage property and common assault.

Ms Swain adjourned the matter for a three-day hearing starting on February 28, and warned Mr Mehajer there would be no further delays.

She said four weeks was enough time to organise a lawyer for the hearing, which would continue “whether you were represented or not”.

“It’s listed for three days and will continue until it’s completed,” she said.

“Sure,” Mr Mehajer told her.

Mr Mehajer attempted to apply for bail today but Mr Assaad said an application had already been refused at the local court and any bail decision would need to be made at a higher court.

Sydney solicitor Brett Galloway leaves the Downing Centre after withdrawing from Mehajer’s assault case on Wednesday. Picture: AAP Image/Lucy Hughes Jones

Taxi driver Nazir Syed, the alleged victim of the incident at Star Casino, yesterday described the second delay in the case as “frustrating”.

Mr Syed said he had taken the day off from work to attend the hearing.

The driver sustained nose injuries in the alleged attack.

Ms Swain was due to hear the charges at an all-day hearing last October when Mr Mehajer was involved in a car crash at 8.40am on his way to court.

Mr Mehajer was in a white Mercedes SUV when it collided with another vehicle at Lidcombe.

Cut free by rescue workers who removed the doors of his luxury vehicle, Mr Mehajer was placed in a neck brace and taken by stretcher to Westmead hospital where he spent the night.

The following day, at the request of Ms Swain, his lawyer Mahmoud Abbas produced a medical certificate saying the crash had exacerbated an existing spinal injury.

But in a sensational development, police on January 23 arrested Mr Mehajer and five others, charging him with perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to cheat and defraud in relation to the crash.

Police alleged Mr Mehajer had engaged in a joint criminal enterprise with five people to set up the crash, and had conspired with his co-accused before and after the incident to provide a false account to an insurance company and others.

On Wednesday last week, Magistrate Jennifer Giles refused Mr Mehajer’s bail application, saying the case on the conspiracy charge was “quite damning” and that the accused was facing a number of matters.

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