A quadriplegic, designer-clad immigrant on 24-hour NDIS care at his million-dollar waterfront unit has been charged with multiple counts of molesting his female carers.
Sohail Aleem Qureshi faces seven charges of sexual assault at his home on the Gold Coast’s Hope Island where he stockpiles expensive Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren goods.
Queensland Police have also charged him with one count of fraud, dishonestly gaining benefit/advantage and one of common assault.
Despite his disability, Qureshi is accused of assaulting female NDIS contractors during their shifts.
Qureshi’s condition is described as an ‘incomplete quadriplegic’ and he retains some restricted movement in his limbs that allows him to still stand unsteadily.
While Qureshi was said to have swollen feet and ankles, he required the care workers to ‘massage his groin [to help his circulation] because he sits for long times’.
Qureshi bragged to his carers that he was a ‘very important person’ and ‘a king of Pakistan’ who had ‘lots of money and luxury cars, including a Lamborghini’, they told Daily Mail Australia.
However, Daily Mail Australia understands he is actually a former taxi driver in the US, where he previously lived, and still speaks with an American accent.
NDIS recipient Sohail Aleem Qureshi (pictured with his wife Josephine before his accident) has been charged with seven counts of sexual assault relating to female NDIS workers
Sohail Aleem Qureshi is a partial quadriplegic after a spinal injury and has been learning to walk again in the time when he allegedly assaulted the NDIS workers
His charges relate to alleged incidents going back to 2022, after his US-based wife Josephine recruited NDIS workers to care for him at the Gold Coast apartment.
The workers made contact with Ms Qureshi via online hiring platforms and were interviewed by her over Skype from her home in Chicago while they attended his unit in person.
A female international student revealed Qureshi’s wife also boasted about their past moneyed lifestyle, and described her husband’s ‘cool, expensive wheelchair’.
‘Qureshi said he was very rich and had led a rich life in New York,’ she said.
The carers revealed Qureshi said how much he hated Australia, but loved the NDIS funding he was being given.
It is believed Qureshi was disabled by a fall in Brisbane more than four years ago which injured his spine.
He started to learn to walk again while receiving NDIS round-the-clock care.
‘He told me that Australia is a “s*** country” and that he “can’t wait to leave this country”,’ said one. ‘But “the NDIS gives you this funding and 24/7 care and where do you get that?”,’ she added.
Josephine Qureshi in Sydney (above) about eight years ago. She now lives in Chicago and helps recruit NDIS workers to attend to her husband’s 24/7 needs after his spinal injury
One alleged victim claimed the NDIS recipient could move reasonably freely even with his condition, which causes a degree of weakness or paralysis in all four limbs.
Despite Qureshi’s bragging about his wealthy background, three of his carers told Daily Mail Australia they didn’t get paid for their shifts.
They say they were told their work hadn’t been up to par, they were too inexperienced, and said that the way the NDIS is set up allows for this to happen.
Another former NDIS worker, who helped look after Qureshi in 2021, said she got an angry reaction when she complained about not getting paid.
She said she found him ‘very passive-aggressive’ and said the NDIS did nothing to ensure payment, except to the person on the scheme.
‘When I didn’t get paid, he intimated that it was kind of my fault,’ said one carer.
‘The problem is the NDIS allows for you not to be paid, so I was owed about $1000 and never go it.’
A male worker said Qureshi told him that ‘he didn’t like certain people among the support workers who came there’.
Sohail Qureshi lives on the NDIS in a $1million apartment on the Gold Coast where young female support workers have alleged he sexually assaulted them, while also claiming to be rich and ‘a king’
A room in the Hope Island apartment on the Gold Coast where Qureshi has lived since injuring his spine and going on to the NDIS
Qureshi declined to comment to Daily Mail Australia on the allegations.
The NDIS told Daily Mail Australia the safety of carers was a priority.
But it admitted the NDIS cannot help if a worker doesn’t get paid and must pursue it through the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
‘Worker safety and wellbeing is a key part of delivering quality and safe supports to NDIS participants,’ it added in a statement
‘NDIS workers have the right to feel safe when they are at work.
‘NDIS providers are responsible for providing safe workplaces. This includes identifying and managing risks to worker safety and wellbeing, such as worker-related violence.
‘Our regulatory arrangements work alongside other legal requirements that apply to NDIS providers, such as the regulation of workplace matters.
‘The NDIS Commission works closely with other regulators and bodies where matters relate to workplace laws and disability support worker issues, both at a systemic and individual worker level.’
