Two more OPP officers charged in GTA tow truck corruption investigationTwo veteran Ontario Provincial Police officers have been charged criminally regarding corruption in the local tow truck industry.
Insp. Steve Grosjean, 62, of the Mississauga detachment and Const. Bindo Showan, 57, of the 407 Detachment have each been charged with breach of trust while Showan has also been charged with accepting secret commissions.
That makes a half dozen GTA police officers who have been criminally charged this year with corruption regarding the towing industry, including one charged with “obtaining sexual service for consideration.”
“This still remains an ongoing investigation,” Bill Dickson of the OPP said on Thursday.
In addition to the corruption allegations, there have been at least four homicides, multiple shootings, scores of tow trucks set on fire and fire-bombings in the GTA towing industry over the past two years.
On Tuesday night, two tow trucks were found ablaze near Victoria Park and O’Connor Drive late Tuesday night.
A warrant was sworn for Showan last month when the OPP charged two other veteran constables for allegedly taking bribes while four other OPP officers, including two senior inspectors, were suspended with pay but not charged.
Last week, Toronto police Const. Ronald Joseph, 48, of was hit with 13 charges related to corruption in the tow truck industry, including attempted fraud over $5,000; counselling an indictable offence not committed; fraud over $5,000; forgery; public mischief; uttering a forged document; conspiracy to commit fraud and counselling to commit an indictable offence.
Another veteran Toronto officer was among 11 people charged last June in a crackdown on corruption in the towing industry, as police alleged that towing companies used illegally obtained encrypted police radios to gain an advantage over their competition.
In York Region, Supt. Mike Slack of York Regional Police earlier said last that four different organized crime groups have been found in the local tow truck industry. Slack made his comments after investigators looking into the towing industry seized a machine-gun, 16 handguns, 13 shotguns, nine rifles, a sawed-off shotgun, thousands of rounds of ammunition, brass knuckles, stun guns and a silencer.
Many of the police charges involve accusations of advancing bogus insurance claims for false or staged collisions.
The OPP revamped its command structure in three GTA detachments last month in the wake of the ongoing tow truck scandal.
The names of the senior officers who were suspended with pay last month have not been released and Dickson said he could not comment on whether Grosjean was one of them.
Last year, a Vaughan legal firm that worked for insurance companies in their legal battles against tow truck firms was forced to shut down after it was twice torched and a gunman shot through its windows in daytime.
Showan, a 20-year veteran, worked undercover for a year and a half before the 2010 G20 Summit, for which he and another OPP officer infiltrated activists who planned what prosecutors called “property modification,” or vandalism.
Industry insiders have told the Star that a driver can net $2,000 tax-free on a single day while police officers can net considerably more through a variety of illegal kickbacks from physiotherapy clinics, body shops, car rentals and storage facilities.
Police continue to investigate the murder of Scarborough tow-truck driver Lawrence Taylor Gannon, 28, who was shot in the driveway of his home on Ivy Green Crescent, near Brimorton Drive and Orton Park Road, at about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday April 29, 2019.
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