A bankrupt former deputy mayor had questions of his own when declining to participate in a police interview over an alleged fraud.
Salim Mehajer, 37, repeatedly told police he was not participating in a recorded interview in January 2021 and maintained his innocence as he answered questions from and asked them to NSW Police Detective Senior Constable Adriano Leite.
Mehajer had legal advice to not participate, but wanted to know if the allegedly fraudulent affidavit police were questioning him over had been lodged with the Federal Court of Australia in person or online.
"When you lodge it in person there's always a (justice of the peace) there so there's no need for me to forge any signature," Mehajer said in the recording played to the NSW District Court on Wednesday.
His answer came after Det Sen Con Leite informed him a solicitor denied signing the document.
Evidence read to the court indicated the document was likely received in person, and could only have been lodged by post otherwise, as the court was not yet accepting emails.
Mehajer wanted to know if police were inquiring about "basically the same thing" previously investigated, and confirmed the signature accompanying his on the document "appears" to be the solicitor's but maintained he was not participating in the interview.
A sergeant confirmed with Mehajer he participated out of his own free will and had no complaints once investigating police left the room.
Mehajer was a former deputy mayor of the since-merged Auburn council in Sydney's west, rising to notoriety when his lavish 2015 wedding celebrations shut down a street.
He has pleaded not guilty to four fraud offences, alleging he made and used false documents to obtain a financial advantage, being $6530 cash found by police at the declared bankrupt's Kirribilli home.
He is also accused of false statements seeking to have the court-ordered trustee of his bankrupt estate replaced.
Mehajer threatened legal action if the money was not returned to his sister, whose signature he also allegedly forged.
The money was hers, a loan from a company she directed, which was only operating to recoup money owed, the statutory declaration purportedly signed by her and witnessed by the solicitor claimed.
It said Mehajer's sister was willing to accept the money had been advanced to him "as any funds in his possession is usually obtained by myself personally" but the funds were "urgently required to meet my overwhelming bills".
NSW Police forensic document examiner Sergeant Dean Swift found multiple points of difference when he compared signatures on the documents with other examples, suggesting they were not genuine.
He did not itemise differences between the sister's purported signature and other examples, because they bore no resemblance.
"The signature in its entirety was fundamentally dissimilar," he said on Wednesday.
Mehajer's barrister Ben Hart said there was a "huge amount of variation" in signature samples for Mehajer's sister.
"A number of those bear no resemblance to the others," he said.
"The first one definitely doesn't," Sgt Swift responded.
"But yes, there is a great deal of variation."
He took the variations into account when forming his opinion, he said.
Questioned by Mr Hart, Sgt Swift confirmed he had been told which signatures were suspected to be non-genuine and had never given evidence for a defence case in court, but clarified he is bound by a code of conduct on expert evidence.
"There have been a number of cases in the past where my opinion has not been favourable to the police investigation," he said.
The trial continues on Thursday.
