Four helicopters, a fighter jet, a plane dragging a banner, herds of biker dudes, dozens of Rolls-Royces, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, a film crew and a troupe of drummers brought traffic to a standstill outside the wedding party in the new family residence in Francis Street, Lidcombe, and Mehajer reaped his own mighty wind. Missy Higgins with Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer and his wife Aysha on their wedding day last Saturday. Credit:Facebook Auburn Council was informed about a wedding, not a circus. Saturday's mayhem ensured the media descended. And when somebody discovered an egocentric prenuptial video, the brief immortality of the internet flared like a sunspot. The video is a paean to love, guns, and family: Mehajer jnr tools around town in a $2 million Koenigsegg car once owned by jailed drug money launderer Carl Trad, meets his wife-to-be at university, shoots a revolver at an unknown victim "to do anything" to keep his love, and fulfils his parents dreams of a good marriage for their son. The gobsmacked delight/distaste only became better/worse when his wife, Aysha, (formerly April Amelia Learmonth) was revealed as a beautician, transmogrified from an Illawarra surf chick to a Middle Eastern princess.

The couple enthusiastically embraced fame, chatting with Kyle and Jackie O, and playing hide-and-seek with the media as the days of glory rolled on. Salim Mehajer during his lavish wedding in Lidcombe, which caused a storm of protest. Mehajer was not besotted by all the coverage. "You wrote lies, do your research," he told the Herald. "You believe people who want to destroy me. I will sue. I have lawyers." Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer leaves an Auburn council meeting in his white Ferrari. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The saturation coverage also uncorked a tonne of love and hate. About 200 Lebanese community supporters turned up on Wednesday evening for the monthly council meeting to see Mehajer effortlessly repel attempts by some councillors to censure him. Tony Abbott and Salim Mehajer. Credit:Facebook Mehajer voted with his mates to defeat the motions 5-4. He remained majestically above the fray while his mate and fellow developer, mayor Ronney Oueik, announced his deputy had paid a $220 fine for the traffic jam. The anti-Mehajer camp complained he was too powerful, a man who inspired fear and awe, but the marriage inflated his profile so much that his business and personal activities came under scrutiny.

Police checked the video to see if the bikers had form, a plethora of Mehajer's traffic convictions and other police matters surfaced and locals told stories of being harassed by his supporters – some spoke of common fences being torn down with no warning, of a neighbouring roof being repainted because the Mehajer's new home looked down on rusting corrugated iron and of complainants waking up to find drawings of guns on their post boxes by persons unknown. People came out of the woodwork to complain that Mehajer had shrunk apartments he was building for them and chasing a $45 million windfall. Purchasers at a Mehajer development at 42-44 John Street, Lidcombe, learned last week apartments they bought off the plan had been reduced in size by up to 40 per cent or scrapped. They were told the 64 apartments in the original eight-storey development would now house an additional eight flats on each floor, giving the deputy mayor a potential profit of $45 million. "I was told my place had been abolished altogether," said Jason, who did not wish for his last name to be published, who bought a $595,000 apartment two years ago. "It was in the contract but you never think it will come to this. I'm an investor and had money tied and I'm getting nothing... The Baird government should put a stop to this." Premier Mike Baird seemed surprised by Mehajer's history but waited for Godot: "I think the community has got high expectations of any level of government, and the community is very concerned about events that they have seen. My hope is that they take those lessons on, but in terms of individually, I mean, obviously the local government minister is considering this case in its entirety and obviously if there's actions we need to take we will."

Once, politics and the law were seen as professions where prestige, power and wealth came with responsibilities. But Australians have overdosed on the privilege recently. Bronwyn Bishop's preference for a helicopter over a COMCAR, Bill Shorten's failure to disclose a $40,000 donation from labour hire company Unibilt to his 2007 election campaign, and Dyson Heydon's decision to address a Liberal fundraiser when he had accepted a commission to investigate union corruption seem to reflect a new standard for the great and good. The days when an MP could be sacked for bringing a colour television into the country but listing it as black and white to avoid duty belong to another country: Australia in 1982. Back then when Malcolm Fraser was dumping television fan Michael MacKellar from his front bench, Lebanon-born Mohamad Mehajer was laying the basis for his son's future fortune. Mehajer snr quit his job at the Arnotts biscuit factory and entered the building trade.

When the Sydney housing market picked around the 2000 Olympics he moved into bigger developments but Mehajer snr's business acumen was wanting and by the GFC he was going under: he turned to Middle East moneymen and Australian banks. In December 2013 Mehajer snr was sentenced to 3½ years jail for conspiring to cheat and defraud the National Australia Bank of more than $3 million. The court found a Mehajer loan application included false documents intended to present his financial position as "much rosier than it really was". It came to light as part of a police investigation into a $150 million fraud linked to the murder of businessman Michael McGurk, people smuggling and false passports. There is no suggestion that Mehajer snr was involved in the other matters. Days before Mehajer snr went to jail in late 2013, an imam conducted Mehajer jnr and Aysha Learmonth's wedding ceremony before some 100 friends and family at Bicentennial Park in Sydney Olympic Park. In the years since, Mehajer jnr has been running the company. His older brother has little to do with the family. One of seven children, Mehajer jnr attended Trinity Grammar School but left to complete his final secondary years at Arthur Phillip High School before entering his father's trade.

He came to public notice running as an independent for the state seat of Auburn in 2011. The following year, he was elected to Auburn City Council and made deputy mayor. The previous summer, in January 2012, Mehajer lost control of a Ferrari and struck two women. He was convicted of negligent driving but successfully appealed and took out an advertisement in the Auburn Review newspaper in October 2013, under the heading "VICTORY over negligent driving" with a photograph of himself and quoting the magistrate Brian Maloney, who had convicted him: "Mr Mehajer, following his victory, can now continue making the important contributions to the community, both as a councillor and as a director of a not-for-profit society that works with local communities' as noted by Magistrate Maloney." There were problems with the Election Funding Authority over electoral spending and political donations for his failed state bid and he was in the headlines last year when a house he owned in Ann Street, Lidcombe, was damaged by a fire. There were also complaints that children at a local primary were put at risk by clouds of asbestos from another Mehajer development, which he closed down and cleaned up. Shortly after his father was jailed, Mehajer jnr took out another advertisement in the Auburn Review announcing his family motivated him to pursue a course at the University of Technology, Sydney, because "I see many families who have either suffered from incompetent lawyers or have simply been 'ripped off' and prosecuted by the Crown unjustly." According to his September 2014 declaration of pecuniary interests to the council, he has interests in 18 investment properties in Auburn, four residential properties and 16 commercial properties, including a suite of medium-rise residential and commercial developments in the John Street transport hub/shopping precinct.

The family company, Sydney Project Group Pty Ltd, negotiated a $6.5 million deal with the municipality to redevelop 13 John Street, a council car park, into a combined residential/commercial complex. But on December 4, 2013, Mehajer asked the council to refund half the company's $650,000 and a majority voted to give him the money in a closed session. Councillor George Campbell, an opponent of Mehajer's, said the refund was "effectively a loan". On Wednesday night Campbell lost his motion to censure Mehajer, saying the mayhem of the wedding had dragged the council's reputation through the mud. Having made the long-time Labor man look like an extra in a rap video shoot, Mehajer roared off into the night in his white Ferrari.