Looking for tenants, but Mehajer resides at Governor’s pleasure
Salim Mehajer is on the lookout for two big additions to his life: a lawyer and a tenant.
As a magistrate ordered Salim Mehajer’s court case over alleged assault to proceed regardless of whether he had a lawyer, his former neighbours could be forgiven for believing his western Sydney mansion had finally found a tenant.
The controversial property developer and former deputy mayor of Auburn appeared in Downing Centre Local Court today, telling magistrate Vivian Swain he had spoken to a legal aid lawyer “but they haven’t showed up”.
But Ms Swain ordered Mr Mehajer back into custody and for the case to continue on February 28.
Mr Mehajer had put his Lidcombe property on the rental market last August, with an asking price of $2950 a week, posting to social media that he was “upgrading” and moving to an undisclosed new location.
In November he upped the asking price to $3550 a week — with an $11,800 rental bond — and changed agents from Surething Realty in Lidcombe to Laing+Simmons Parramatta.
A Laing+Simmons for lease board out the front of the six-bedroom, five-bathroom property has been plastered with two large stickers reading “leased” and “good move”.
But Lang+Simmons listing agent Kyle Lord said his firm had not leased the property and had no idea who had, or whether it had in fact been leased at all.
“Salim put the signs there himself,” Mr Lord said yesterday, suggesting Mr Mehajer did so before he was incarcerated last week.
Suggesting the property has not been leased, extensive Christmas decorations, which were installed by a team of people over several days late last year, remained draped over the property’s exterior.
Before Christmas Mr Mehajer, a Muslim, announced on social media he had decided to elaborately decorate the home to show community spirit and hoped visitors to the property would donate money to a charity he runs.
“It’s time to turn this home into a ‘Christmas extravaganza’,” he wrote at the time.
“Do come down and visit the light show that will be on display.”
Magistrate Ms Swain was feeling far from charitable this morning when she ruled the case alleging Mr Mehajer assaulted a taxi driver would proceed on February 28 whether he had legal representation or not.
His lawyers dramatically abandoned his case yesterday, saying they had been asked to take a position which was “untenable” and they had an “ethical dilemma”.
Police prosecutor Amin Assaad said it was “very unlikely” Mr Mehajer would “meet the means test for (legal aid) assistance”.
Mr Mehajer was arrested on Tuesday last week over allegedly perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to defraud in connection to a car crash he was involved in last October.
Mr Mehajer, who had been driving the late model white Mercedes AMG wagon at the time of the crash, had been on his way to the Downing Centre Local Court to face the charges of assaulting a taxi driver outside Sydney’s The Star casino in April.
Police allege Mr Mehajer deliberately crashed the car to avoid attending court, and committed insurance fraud after a claim was made in relation to the accident.
Three other people were also arrested in connection to the accident, including Mr Mehajer’s close friend and business associate Ahmed Jaghbir, who at the time of the arrest was on bail after being charged with the underworld murder of Kemel “Blackie” Bakarat last March.
Mr Mehajer was denied bail last week by magistrate Jennifer Giles, who said the police case against him was “quite damning”.
Mr Mehajer faces a string of other legal battles, including charges of electoral fraud, and is being sued by many creditors.
This morning he had three separate cases being heard all at the same time.
Along with the assault case in the Downing Centre Local Court, in the nearby Sydney Local Court he faced two civil hearings, one brought by BMW Australia Finance and one by small CCTV and security business SmartCam Security.
With agencies
Bandt tells Muslim group what he will demand from Labor on Gaza
Adam Bandt has vowed to Muslim Votes Matter that he would demand an end to the ‘invasion’ of Gaza, sanction Israel and ‘audit’ national security legislation, hinting at what he could seek from a minority Labor government.
WFH cuts weekly commute time
Australians who worked from home since the Covid pandemic have cut their commute times by 3.4 hours a week, a time saving worth an estimated $5308 a year.