Salim Mehajer, the Sydney businessman, has been sentenced to a minimum of 11 months in prison for orchestrating an electoral fraud scheme alongside his sister, Fatima Mehajer. The 32-year-old was found guilty of 77 charges related to a joint criminal enterprise to rig the 2012 Auburn city council election.
Magistrate Beverley Schurr handed down the sentence at the Downing Centre local court on Friday, ordering Mehajer to serve 21 months in total, with a release on a good behaviour bond after 11 months. His sister received a two-month suspended jail term and a $500 good behaviour bond for nine months.
Describing the offending as “towards the top of the scale of criminality”, the magistrate noted that the pair had conspired to add ineligible voters to the electoral roll. Text messages exchanged on the day of the election were cited as direct evidence of their planning and intent.
The court heard that voter applications were submitted from just two computers, one linked to a Mehajer family company and the other to a residence shared by family members. Vigilant staff at the Australian Electoral Commission halted the process after becoming suspicious, but 18 ineligible names had already been added, and votes were cast in their names during the 2012 council election.
