Former OPP inspector pleads guilty in tow-truck corruption case

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A former Ontario Provincial Police inspector has pleaded guilty to breach of trust after an internal corruption probe tied to the Greater Toronto Area’s tow-truck turf wars – the second veteran officer with the service to plead guilty this year.

Steven Grosjean was commander for the highway safety division’s Mississauga detachment when he was arrested in February, 2021.

He was the highest ranking of four veteran officers charged in an internal corruption investigation, which OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique told The Globe and Mail at the time was related to officers giving preferential treatment to a particular tow company.

That towing company was allegedly Steve’s Towing, owned by Sutheshkumar Sithambarpillay (also known as Steve Pillay) – one of the featured towing operators on the Discovery Canada reality show Heavy Rescue: 401.

The charges were laid at a time of violence in the GTA’s towing industry. A Globe and Mail investigation in February, 2020 revealed that more than 50 trucks had been burned, and at least four men with ties to the industry had been killed, as tow-truck drivers competed for territory within the lucrative industry.

At Thursday’s court hearing, assistant Crown attorney Jason Nicol, who is handling all police corruption cases in Ontario involving tow-truck-related corruption, told the judge that Insp. Grosjean’s conduct was on the “low end of the scale in terms of that activity.”

According to an agreed statement of facts, the inspector met Mr. Sithambarpillay when the officer was a sergeant in the highway safety division in 2006. The pair became friends, and kept in regular contact over the years, including after his promotion to detachment commander in 2016.

Between March and July, 2020, then-inspector Grosjean called Mr. Sithambarpillay on a number of occasions to advise him of the locations of vehicles in the GTA “that appeared to require a tow, or to let him know when a specific officer was doing enforcement work, and also that officer’s location on the highway.”

According to the agreed statement of facts, “there was no evidence that Pillay actually towed any vehicles as a result of Grosjean providing this information. However, Grosjean provided Pillay with towing opportunities … that he might not otherwise have received in the normal course. This would have permitted Pillay to secure … towing opportunities that otherwise should have gone to the first available tow operator, or the first tow truck on scene.”

Asked by the judge if he had anything to say, Mr. Grosjean – who with 35 years of service retired Oct. 31 after 20 months of paid suspension – said he was “incredibly sorry.”

The OPP declined to comment on the guilty plea Thursday, citing related court cases that have yet to be resolved.

Constable Mohammed (Ali) Hussain is charged with secret commissions and breach of trust. Constable Simon Bridle is charged with secret commissions, breach of trust and obtaining sexual services for consideration. Mr. Sithambarpillay is charged with aiding and abetting breach of trust and secret commissions. The allegations against those three have not been proven in court.

In June, Constable Bindo Showan also pleaded guilty to breach of trust. He received a suspended sentence.

According to agreed facts submitted in his case, he came onto the radar of investigators after a wiretap on Mr. Sithambarpillay’s phone captured communications with several OPP officers, including Constable Showan.

Investigators were looking into tows within the GTA connected to stunt-driving offences (speeding more than 50 kilometres an hour over the speed limit), which according to the agreed facts require seven-day vehicle impoundments and “can often yield upwards of $2,000 per vehicle to the tow company.”

The investigation – which also involved physical surveillance – showed that Constable Showan and Mr. Pillay were in regular phone contact to ensure that Mr. Pillay’s tow trucks were positioned to beat other tow companies to jobs.

Between Oct. 15, 2019 and July 27, 2020, the facts noted, records indicated that “Mr. Pillay’s tow companies profited approximately $289,000.75 solely off the stunt-driving vehicle seizures conducted by Constable Showan.”

A further analysis of the officer’s enforcement history found that, after he joined the 407 Detachment in 2016, the majority of his stunt-driving tows were conducted by either Steve’s Towing or CCC Towing, a sister company also owned by Mr. Sithambarpillay. “That resulted in at least $500,000 in towing business to Mr. Pillay.”