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A Toronto police officer who pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a computer service in connection with the Project South police corruption investigation was handed a conditional discharge Monday.
Elias Mouawad, 25, conducted an illegal licence plate search at the request of a former employer, according to an agreed statement of facts in the case.
A conditional discharge means Mouawad was found guilty, but will not have a criminal record if he abides by the conditions of his one-year probation, which includes the 100 hours of community service.
He was one of several officers charged in Project South, the months-long police corruption and organized crime investigation led by York Regional Police.
Mouawad’s defence lawyer Peter Brauti, who was seeking a conditional discharge, said his client is relieved and wants to move forward.
“He was somebody who really shouldn’t have been included in Project South,” Brauti said outside court Monday.
“He wasn’t engaged in any of the serious misconduct they’ve alleged in that bigger file, but he got caught up in it and he was a small fish in what’s clearly a big case.”
Defence lawyer Peter Brauti argued for a conditional discharge for his client Elias Moawad, who is seen wiping away tears in Ontario Superior Court on Sept. 28, 2026. (Pam Davies/CBC)
The Crown was seeking a four-month sentence — two months of house arrest and two months of curfew — and a minimum of one year of probation.
Brauti argued that would hurt Mouawad’s employment prospects and he’d be more likely to be demoted or fired by the Toronto police.
“He made a mistake right from the very beginning. He admitted it upon arrest so he’s taking full responsibility,” Brauti said of his client.
“He now has an opportunity to go to a disciplinary hearing and fight for his job. And he intends to do so because policing was his lifelong dream.”
Mouawad apologized tearfully at September plea hearing
When Mouawad pleaded guilty last month, he wiped away tears as he read an apology letter aloud in the courtroom and committed to becoming a better person.
“I devoted myself wholeheartedly to serve others and be the best police officer I could be,” he said.
“The road is long but not impossible. I will do everything in my power to rebuild what was lost.”
Court heard Mouawad worked as a security guard before becoming a police officer and his former employer, who is also his co-accused in the Project South case, asked him to run the licence plate.
The two spoke on FaceTime on Jan. 19, which York Regional Police intercepted, according to the agreed statement of facts.
They discussed a photo of the licence plate linked to a person who, court heard, is listed in multiple historical RCMP substance trafficking investigations at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
When Mouawad questioned who the information was for, the former boss reassured him he knew the person and that Mouawad would not get in trouble for the search.
Court heard Mouawad didn’t know who would receive the results of the search or what the information would be used for.
It was eventually shared with Brian Da Costa, an alleged drug trafficker and a key player in the corruption probe, who remains in custody.
Project South began after alleged attempted murder plot
Project South began in June 2025 when York Regional Police stopped an alleged plot to kill a senior corrections officer at Toronto South Detention Centre.
During that investigation, York police discovered that a Toronto police officer allegedly shared confidential information about that jail official with Da Costa.
An aerial view of York Regional Police officers thwarting an alleged attempted murder of a senior corrections officer on June 20, 2025. (York Regional Police)
Da Costa is accused of providing that information to an alleged gun-for-hire network that disseminated the information to others who are charged in the alleged murder plot.
The allegations against Da Costa have not yet been tested in court.
The scope of the probe grew to include other alleged police corruption tied to organized crime.
In total, seven Toronto police officers, one retired constable and 19 civilians were initially charged in Project South.
Mouawad had only been a police officer for a year and a half prior to his arrest and was suspended without pay on Feb. 4.
He is the second Toronto police officer to plead guilty in the Project South investigation. In July, former constable Derek McCormick pleaded guilty to two charges.