Salim Mehajer ‘off hook’ in council inquiry

Salim Mehajer is expected to emerge from the public inquiry into the sacked Auburn Council largely unscathed.

Former Auburn City Council deputy mayor Salim Mehajer could be able to return to local government after an inquiry into the council leaves him ‘largely unscathed’. Picture: AAP

The nation’s most controversial former deputy mayor is expected to emerge from the public inquiry into the sacked Auburn Council largely unscathed with the lawyer assisting the inquiry preparing a report understood to have taken a soft-touch approach.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Paul Bolster, has delivered his ­initial report to all inquiry participants and it is understood to contain little hard-hitting material, suggesting Salim Mehajer and his fellow former Auburn councillors may even be permitted to run for election to local government again in the future.

The Auburn inquiry was launched in February after a string of investigations raised concerns over the close relationships between Auburn councillors and property development.

Suspended Auburn councillors Mr Mehajer and Ronney Oueik are two of the biggest property developers in Auburn and in recent months alone have stood to gain $30 million from council rezonings to properties they own.

Despite the concerns over property developers sitting on local councils it is understood Mr Bolster’s report does not recommend the practice be banned.

Instead, The Australian understands Mr Bolster has recommended only that councillors publicly disclose this interest at election time, potentially opening the door for similar scandals in the future.

The issue is particularly jarring in NSW, where property developers cannot make political donations but the can run for local government.

The NSW government has told The Australian it has no plans to change the law.

Mr Mehajer and some of his close associates have a history of avoiding legal convictions, despite regularly being chased through the courts and targeted by police.

The former “right-hand man” and general manager of Mr ­Mehajer’s string of property development companies, Ahmad Yaseen, admitted to widespread fraud in the Federal Court in Sydney more than two years ago.

Someone in the Mehajer group submitted 20 false “creditor claims” in the wake of the collapse of Mr Mehajer’s SM Project Developments in 2013, forging different signatures for each of the claims.

The fraudulent claims — some as high as $198,000 — had the ­effect of diluting claims to creditors, including more than $700,000 owed to the Australian Taxation Office. Mr Yaseen told the court he was responsible for the fraud, which he agreed was “very serious”, but despite this has not faced any ­action from police.

NSW Police and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission have each ­argued the other is responsible for taking action since The Australian raised the issue last November.

The matter is particularly embarrassing for NSW police because its traffic unit has aggressively targeted Mr Mehajer, often fining him for minor or spurious infringements.

In August Sydney’s Burwood Local Court threw out a fine for talking on a mobile phone while driving because Mr Mehajer produced a “credible” witness providing evidence to the contrary.

In October last year Mr Mehajer was issued with a defect notice for driving his new $250,000 white four-wheel drive Mercedes Benz.

Police had alleged the car was not roadworthy because its factory standard exhaust pipes faced out from the sides of the car.

The case was rejected when Mercedes Benz produced a letter showing the exhausts fully complied with Australian standards.