Cellmate: Salim Mehajer bared his soul and more in Surry Hills lock up

Alex Arnold has revealed all after sharing a cell with property developer Salim Mehajer.

Alex Arnold shared a cell with Salim Mehajer

Controversial property developer Salim Mehajer is used to commanding a national audience of millions with his colourful stunts, which included a prime-time televised announcement of his planned tilt to become prime minister, and for his litany of court appearances and legal spats.

But for four days last week that audience had shrunk to just one — Alex Arnold, a 40-year-old ­alleged jewellery thief and Mr Mehajer’s cellmate in the bowels of inner-Sydney’s Surry Hills Police Station.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Mr Arnold, who is currently on bail and denies wrongdoing, said that after being arrested late last month over the alleged break and enter of a Kings Cross jewellery store he had been moved into a cell opposite Mr ­Mehajer’s.

“A senior Corrective Services officer said, ‘Do you want to share with Salim over there’,” Mr ­Arnold said.

“I said ‘I’d rather not’. But then I thought this guy might be some good conversation.”

Mr Arnold said the guard told him Mr Mehajer — the former deputy mayor of Auburn in Sydney’s west — had been in the cell under special protection and both men had signed forms agreeing to share the cell.

Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer arrives to Central Local Court in November 2017. Picture: AAP

“He was really, really lonely,” Mr Arnold said. “He said he was going to neck himself if they didn’t move someone in.

“I don’t know if it was a figure of speech but he had some serious depression.”

Mr Arnold said his cellmate was talkative, but he was upset by Mr Mehajer’s failure to clean up the cell — and by his proclivity for getting around half naked.

“He was lying around in just a towel with no underwear,” Mr ­Arnold said. “Like one of those Egyptians.”

Mr Arnold said the area around the toilet in the small cell, which contained two beds, smelt heavily of urine and faeces, but Mr Mehajer had made no attempt to clean the mess.

“He should have done what he could to clean it but he was sleeping around half-nude so I cleaned it with bedsheets and two towels.”

Regardless, Mr Arnold said the pair did a “lot of talking” and spoke at length about many things.

“I’m pretty down to earth and I said: ‘The wedding, streets blocked off ... that was the beginning of this.’ And he said ‘Yeah, 100 per cent’,” Mr Arnold said.

Deputy Auburn Mayor Salim Mehajer on his wedding day in Lidcombe, in 2015. His lavish wedding involved 4 helicopters, over 30 super cars, 50 motorbikes, a jet flyover and over 100m of red carpet. Picture: Toby Zerna

“We talked about building. He said he’s got 15 houses but they’re all highly leveraged.’’

Mr Mehajer was arrested late last month and charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and perverting the course of justice over a car crash in October, with police alleging he was involved in insurance fraud. Mr Arnold said Mr Mehajer told him he was concerned that if a new $80 million-odd apartment development he was planning to build in the western Sydney suburb of Lidcombe didn’t go ahead, he would be fin­ancially ruined.

“If that doesn’t go through, he could be done,” Mr Arnold said.

Mr Arnold said Mr Mehajer was also suffering from a bad back, which Mehajer attributed to a car accident.

“We swapped a back massage for a back massage,” Mr Arnold said.

He said he thought Mr Mehajer would struggle in jail. “I don’t think he’s got it in him to do any serious jail — he’s too polite and too feminine,” Mr Arnold said.