Scourge of car theft: three accused escape due to legal delays

Three young people accused of operating a structured luxury car theft network will no longer have to face justice, due to the State’s inability to try them within a reasonable time, thereby ruining an investigation. of a month involving around twenty police officers.

• See also – Exclusive access: around fifty stolen vehicles seized at the port of Montreal

• Read also – Car theft network: alleged exporters parade before a judge

“The situation is unfortunate given the efforts made by the police in investigating this matter. But since the deadlines exceed the ceiling [fixé par la Cour suprême]the court has no choice but to order a halt to the proceedings,” commented Judge Salvatore Mascia in a decision made public in the last few days.

James Rizk, Ali Trad and Obeida Borghol, aged 26 to 27, immediately saw the accusations of vehicle theft and conspiracy thrown into the trash, to the great dismay of the Montreal police, who had not spared their efforts. efforts in this investigation.

“Simple but structured” strategy

This is because the trio had set up a “simple but structured” way to steal luxury vehicles, we read in the decision.

“They rented high-end vehicles from car rental companies, installed a GPS and made a copy of the key,” the judge said. When another customer rented one of the vehicles, he found it using GPS and stole it.”

To gather enough evidence, the police had put in place a surveillance plan. Thus, for around ten days, the accused were followed closely by surveillance agents. This led them to a garage in Montreal North, where suspects were seen “doing something to the vehicles”, possibly installing GPS beacons.

Ontario police were also involved, as the group allegedly stole two vehicles in the neighboring province before bringing them to Montreal.


AND AT YOUR HOME ?

Is your municipality often the target of car thieves?

Find out on this map compiled by our Investigation Office, which allows you to locate down to the street, in certain cities, where thousands of vehicles have been stolen in Quebec since the start of the year.

Municipality (number of flights)

Number of flights to the same address

Methodology

This map of vehicle thefts in Quebec covers the year 2023, from January 1 to a date between June 30 and October 12, depending on the city.

The data comes from the Sûreté du Québec, the police service of the City of Montreal, the city of Laval, the city of Longueuil, the police service of the City of Gatineau, the police service of the city of Quebec , from the police service of the city of Lévis, from the police service of Sherbrooke, from the city of Blainville, from the police service of Châteauguay, from the police service from the city of Mascouche, from the city of Granby, from the city of Trois-Rivières, the police department of the city of Bromont, the police department of Lac des Deux-Montagnes, the police department of Memphrémagog, the police department of the city of Saint-Eustache, the police of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, the city of Repentigny, the city of Mirabel, and Équité Association. Some were obtained through access to information.

Note that municipalities may have included vehicles such as motorcycles, trucks or boats in their balance sheet. As for location data, it was transmitted to us in different forms: postal code, street corner, street or neighborhood.

Data compilation: Nora T. Lamontagne and Philippe Langlois, Bureau of Investigation

Delay over delay

The police investigation culminated in the arrest and indictment of the group in 2021.

Except that since then, the case has only dragged on.

First there was the Crown, which mismanaged the case, noted the judge, deploring “the blatant absence of a concrete plan […] to complete the case,” noted the judge. And combining this error with the conflict between the Minister of Justice and the Chief Justice at the time (which led to less court time for judges), all the ingredients were in place to increase delays.

“In summary, the institutional delays as well as the inaction of government authorities […] are to blame for a large part of the delays,” we can read in the judgment in the part which takes up the position of the defense.

The Crown had tried to blame certain delays on the backlash of the pandemic, but without success.

“COVID-19 does not give carte blanche to excuse delays,” ruled the judge.

A “scourge across the country”

The trial was finally set for May 2024 for three weeks, but it was too late, the judge ruled, recalling that the Supreme Court had established strict time limits for an accused to undergo a trial. In the case of Rizk, Trad and Obeida, the cap was 18 months.

So much so that the judge had no choice but to side with M’s arguments.are Mustapha Mahmoud, Andrée-Anne Dion and David Leclair for the defense in ordering the proceedings to be stopped due to unreasonable delays.

And this, despite the fact that vehicle theft is a growing concern, with significant consequences for motorists.

“Not without concern, the theft of motor vehicles has become a scourge throughout the country and particularly in the city of Montreal,” recognized the judge.

Note that just last year, more than 90,000 vehicles were stolen in the country, with the port of Montreal seeming to be the most popular exit point for exporting stolen cars.

The situation is such that as recently as the beginning of the month a national summit on the subject was held. Among other things, we learned that car thefts had caused insurance premiums to jump by $105 on average last year.

See also:

Do you have any information to share with us about this story?

Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.


source site-64

Latest