Inside the rise and fall of notorious ex-politician Salim Mehajer

Salim Mehajer was on Friday released from prison. This is the story of how he became a household name and came to spend nearly five years behind bars.

In October 2024, Salim Mehajer stood in the dock of a Sydney court and was told by a judge that if could “return to using his abilities for good rather than ill, he will have a successful life.”

That’s about to be tested after the notorious former developer and politician on Friday walked out of a Sydney jail on parole after nearly five years behind bars.

Mehajer shot to prominence in 2015 when his showy wedding - which reportedly cost $1.4m and featured a fleet of luxury cars, helicopters and a fighter jet - blocked off a Lidcombe street.

Since then he’s been plagued by a seemingly never-ending series of legal battles and court appearances.

But after serving back-to-back jail sentences for multiple criminal offences, Mehajer has been released on parole.

He walked out of the John Morony Correctional Centre on Friday, into a waiting hire car, which whisked him off to continue his new life.

THE WEDDING

It was described as Australia’s “best” and “most expensive” wedding and made Mehajer a minor celebrity.

Mehajer’s lavish wedding to his then wife Aysha made headlines across the country.

He arrived in one of four helicopters, drummers lined the streets, flanked by dozens of luxury sports cars and a procession of motorbikes.

Mehajer also hired a seaplane, a jet and a small film crew to capture the whole affair.

But it angered locals by shutting down a Lidcombe street and posting flyers to residents falsely claiming that their car would be towed.

It also brought him into conflict with the Auburn council, where he was deputy mayor, and he was fined $220 for shutting down the street down without council permission.

Salim Mehajer walked out of jail on Friday. Picture: 9News

THE FIRST JAILING

In June 2018, Mehajer was jailed after he was convicted of electoral fraud relating to his 2012 run for the Auburn council.

Mehajer and his sister attempted to register voters in his ward despite the people living outside the electorate boundaries.

Magistrate Beverley Schurr at the time described his offences as striking “at the heart of the democratic electoral system.”

His sister, Fatima Mehajer, pleaded guilty to 77 counts of giving false or misleading information to a Commonwealth entity. She was given a two-month suspended jail sentence.

Mehajer was convicted of 51 counts of using a forged document to dishonestly influence and 26 counts of giving false or misleading information to a Commonwealth entity, and sentenced to a maximum of 21 months in prison.

He was released after serving 11 months.

But it would not be the last time he was in jail.

Salim Mehajer walked free from jail this week after nearly five years inside. Picture: NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

“ONLY GOD CAN BANKRUPT ME”

In 2018, Mehajer posted a Snapchat from prison: “Only God can bankrupt me!”.

But in March that year a Federal Court judge declared him bankrupt and he was found to have owed creditors about $25m, including $8.6 million to the Australian Taxation Office.

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 and other stonework inside his Lidcombe mansion.

“The plaintiff constructed a marble palace in accordance with the defendant’s instructions, the exquisiteness of which is not in dispute,” District Court judge Judith Gibson said at the time.

The opulent stonework famously once featured in a video by rapper Bow Wow.

Mehajer was ordered by Judge Gibson to pay the company $668,276, as well as the construction company’s legal costs.

The petition to bankrupt Mehajer was supported by Prime Marble & Granite.

Last year, Mehajer’s Lidcombe mansion was sold off for $3.85m at auction after it was repossessed by the National Australia Bank.

The Federal Court had earlier rejected Mehajer’s application for an injunction to block the NAB from selling two of his properties.

The marble staircase which landed Salim Mehajer in hot water.

THE RETURN TO JAIL

In November 2020, Mehajer was back behind bars 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 in the District Court.

The case centred on his 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.

Salim Mehajer has been in jail since November 2020. Picture: NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

VEXATIOUS LITIGANT

From a prison cell, Mehajer suffered a massive blow in 2022 when he was effectively blocked from launching legal action in NSW when he was declared a “vexatious litigant” by the NSW Supreme Court.

It means that Mehajer is prohibited from bringing any new proceedings in NSW unless granted prior leave by the court.

It came about after his attempt to sue former business partners for an eye-watering $52m backfired.

He attempted to sue 17 former business partners relating to a failed development project at Lidcombe.

He sought damages of $52m however he later accepted that the statement of claim could not be maintained.

The court found that Mehajer had launched over 10 lawsuits in the preceding years which were “initiated without reasonable grounds” or meant to “harass” or “annoy” the defendants.

Salim Mehajer was jailed for domestic violence offences against his former partner. Picture: NewsWire/Joel Carrett

THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OFFENCES

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 the woman by punching her in the head during an argument in his car, squeezing her hand and crushing her phone that she was holding, suffocating her by putting his hand over her nose and mouth until she passed out.

“He just kept pressing his hand over my nose and mouth so that I couldn’t scream and I couldn’t breathe, and he was telling me that he could easily kill me, he could keep beating me until I wouldn’t wake up,” the woman said during her evidence.

He was also found guilty of threatening to kill the woman’s 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 said during the trial.

“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 his sister.

He was sentenced concurrently for both the fraud and domestic violence offences.

He is due to appear in the Court of Criminal Appeal next week to appeal against his domestic violence offences.

Salim Mehajer, pictured back in 2020, was on Friday freed on parole. Photo: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard.

A CAR CRASH

Last year, 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 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.

Television crews at the scene of the crash at a Lidcombe intersection captured Mehajer being stretchered into an ambulance with his neck in a brace.

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.

He was sentenced by Judge Warwick Hunt to a maximum of two years for the offences, with a non-parole period of 16 months.

However his non-parole period for the fraud and domestic violence matters did not expire until Friday, when he was released.

Judge Hunt told him at the time: “If he can return to using his abilities for good rather than ill, he will have a successful life.”

Mehajer was last month granted parole by the State Parole Authority.

In an SPA hearing earlier this year, the Commissioner of Corrective Services opposed his release, citing a risk of reoffending, his lack of attitudinal change and Mehajer’s continued denial of some of his crimes.

This is despite a Community Corrections pre-release report recommending that Mehajer be released on conditional parole.

The State Parole Authority board determined his rehabilitation was best served in the community where he will be under the watch of a psychologist and community corrections officers.

He will have to abide by a stringent list of conditions including not contacting Outlaw Motorcycle Gang members or associates, as well as having to undergo drug and alcohol testing.