Former politician and property developer Salim Mehajer has escaped having time added to his already lengthy prison sentence after being sentenced for a freak staged car accident in an attempt to avoid a court appearance.
Mehajer, 38, appeared in Sydney’s Downing Center District Court on Tuesday with his legal team, including lawyer Zawat Zreika, to be sentenced for the choreographed crash, and finally learned when he will be available to be released from prison.
In July, Mehajer pleaded guilty to 22 charges, including perverting the course of justice, making a false statement leading to a police investigation, making a false call for an ambulance and careless driving.
He admitted arranging the car crash in western Sydney in October 2017, and the court hearing alleged Mehajer orchestrated the incident in a bid to delay his court appearance for an unrelated criminal matter for assaulting a taxi driver.
His Mercedes was involved in an accident with a Mitsubishi Outlander at the intersection of Nicholas and Delhi streets in Lidcombe, and television crews at the scene captured Mehajer being stretchered into an ambulance with his neck strapped into a brace.
He was due to face a hearing in Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court that day, and his lawyer would produce a medical certificate, causing the matter to be adjourned for three months.
He had claimed that the Outlander had failed to yield at the intersection, but a forensic investigation found irregularities that contradicted Mehajer’s version of the accident.
Judge Warwick Hunt described the plan as “unsophisticated” and noted that it did not escape Mehajer from a hearing, but was only adjourned until early next year.
Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer (pictured) was due to face a court hearing on the day he was involved in a car crash that occurred in western Sydney in October 2017.
Television crews at the scene captured Mehajer (pictured) being stretchered into an ambulance with his neck in a brace after the car crash in October 2017.
“There was no likelihood that the acts committed to pervert the course of justice were intended or could have brought the related judicial proceedings… to any kind of finality,” Judge Hunt said.
Mehajer also pleaded guilty to handling identity information to commit an indictable offense relating to falsely naming other people as drivers involved in traffic offences.
The court heard Mehajer was not the driver in all of the incidents.
The charges were the latest criminal matters for which Mehajer was awaiting sentencing.
On Tuesday Judge Hunt sentenced him to a maximum of two years for the offences, with a non-parole period of 16 months.
This means his earliest release for these matters was set for December 14 of this year.
However, it will matter little given that Auburn’s former deputy mayor is already in prison after he was convicted in separate trials of unrelated fraud and domestic violence matters in the middle of last year.
In a decision handed down by District Court Judge James Bennett earlier this year, Mehajer was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and nine months in prison.
Mehajer (pictured) was sentenced to a maximum of two years behind bars after he pleaded guilty in July to 22 charges, including making a false call for an ambulance and careless driving.
He was sentenced simultaneously for fraud and domestic violence offenses and given a three-and-a-half-year non-parole period.
Following that sentencing process, his earliest possible release was set for July of next year.
Mehajer has been in custody since November 2020, when he was found guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of making a false statement under oath.
Judge Hunt noted that Mehajer had endured onerous conditions in prison, having served a large part of his sentence during the Covid-19 pandemic.
And he said Mehajer had good prospects for rehabilitation, noting that he was a man of considerable intelligence and resources.
“If you can reuse your abilities for good and not evil, you will have a successful life,” Judge Hunt said.