A Sydney car salesman who filmed himself dancing and driving at dangerous speeds on the M5 for Instagram has been sentenced to a 15-month suspended jail sentence and 150 hours of community service on appeal.
In a series of social media videos Ali El Skaf is seen overtaking traffic in a breakdown lane at Bexley and breaking through a roadblock during bushfires to drive on the M5.
In these videos, the 19-year-old is driving up to 189km/h.
“Express. No one on the M5, only me ha ha ha,” the Cecil Hills man can be heard yelling.
“They can’t even get us for speeding – allegations.”
In other videos, El Skaf is seen reaching speeds of up to 211km/h and often drives high-powered cars that are for sale at his family’s Best Buy Autos business at Moorebank.
His appalling record of dangerous driving was all uploaded to social media, eventually leading to his arrest in March 2020.
9News has obtained police bodycam footage of his arrest where El Skaf is seen trying to ditch a diamond-encrusted watch, which features prominently in his videos, and an item which a judge found was an identifying feature.
Judge Andrew Scotting found El Skaf was identifiable in the videos due to his “distinctive voice” which has a “husky tone” and through a number of catchphrases he repeats in his videos, including the sound “ahhhhh” and the exaggerated pronunciation of the word “allegations”.
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El Skaf was convicted of four counts of driving dangerously and while he unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in November last year, he appealed the severity of his sentence in January this year and was sentenced to a 15-month intensive corrections order.
“The appellant deliberately drove at a speed and in a manner dangerous to the public for the purpose of filming and publishing his actions on social media,” NSW District Court Scotting said.
“He intended to create notoriety for himself, to encourage others to copy his actions and to publicly express his contempt for the authority of the police,” Scotting said.
In sentencing, the judge said he needed to send a strong statement to “like-minded people” including El Skaf’s social media followers.
“The appellant has not taken responsibility for his actions or expressed any remorse,” Scotting said.
“The appellant’s actions demonstrate a disregard for the law and the authority of the police to enforce the law.”
While El Skaf enjoyed filming himself for social media, he declined to answer questions on camera when 9News approached him outside the NSW District Court last month.
“Get out of my face,” he said.
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