{"id":440410,"date":"2026-01-29T08:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/440410\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T08:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:05:08","slug":"ontario-police-charge-eight-people-in-an-alleged-scheme-at-driver-licensing-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/440410\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario police charge eight people in an alleged scheme at driver-licensing centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five employees of driver-licensing centres in Ontario<\/a> allegedly accepted bribes to manipulate the results of commercial truck-driving tests, according to documents filed in a Toronto court.<\/p>\n

Ontario Provincial Police<\/a> have laid a total of two dozen charges against eight defendants in an alleged scheme at the DriveTest centres, which are contracted by the province to provide driver licensing and examinations. <\/p>\n

The charges stem from an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, which is led by the OPP, into \u201csuspected irregularities\u201d in commercial truck-licence testing between 2021 and 2024 in Kingston and the Greater Toronto Area.<\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s Serious Fraud Office tries to keep up as scams become increasingly sophisticated<\/a><\/p>\n

The probe found that driving instructors from \u201cvarious driving schools\u201d facilitated bribes to examiners, OPP spokesperson Tracey Mellersh said. <\/p>\n

Approximately 250 applicants passed their driving tests with examiners charged in connection with the investigation, Ms. Mellersh told The Globe and Mail. It\u2019s unclear if any of the drivers were aware of the alleged scheme. <\/p>\n

According to the latest available provincial data, from 2022, there were around 233,000 drivers with Class A licences in Ontario. <\/p>\n

Court documents obtained by The Globe allege that five of the defendants in the case accepted or demanded bribes while employed as \u201cagents\u201d of Serco Canada Inc., the company that operates DriveTest and is contracted by the Ministry of Transportation to conduct road tests. A spokesperson for the company did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The agents are Craig Berry, 54, of Kingston; Vishnu Ayyamperumal Kumar, 36, of Oshawa; Victor Imade, 55, of Georgetown; Mandeep Manshahia, 34, of Caledon; and Imraan Jaffer, 43, of North York. <\/p>\n

OPP launches probe into company that received millions from Ontario<\/a><\/p>\n

They are charged with breach of trust, a criminal offence that involves abusing a position of authority. They are also charged with secret commissions, an offence that involves offering or accepting improper payments in business dealings. <\/p>\n

Three other defendants are accused of offering those agents bribes: Jaspal Benipal, 58, of Brampton; Harmandeep Sudan, 40, of Brampton; and Navdeep Grewal, 36, of Brampton. They are charged with secret commissions.<\/p>\n

Mr. Berry, Mr. Grewal, and Mr. Manshahia are also charged with money laundering.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for Mr. Manshahia and Mr. Kumar said they could not comment on matters before the court, but said their clients dispute the allegations. A lawyer for Mr. Grewal said he also plans to dispute the charges. Representatives for the remaining defendants did not respond to request for comment by Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

The police investigation into Class A driving-licence exams began in January, 2024, at the request of the Ministry of Transportation, according to an OPP statement.<\/p>\n

Class A licences allow drivers to operate commercial trucks and requires applicants to undergo mandatory training, and subsequently complete road tests at provincial DriveTest centres or at an employer or community college authorized by the Ontario Transportation Ministry.<\/p>\n

Dakota Brasier, spokesperson for Transportation<\/a> Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, said the government conducted an initial investigation into the allegations before referring the matter to the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommercial driver licensing exists to ensure that only qualified, properly trained drivers are on our roads. Anyone who attempts to undermine that system through fraud or criminal activity will be held accountable to the full extent of the law,\u201d Ms. Brasier said.<\/p>\n

The ministry did not respond to questions from The Globe regarding its contract with Serco, or what actions were taken to address the 250 licences allegedly obtained through the defendants in the case. The ministry confirmed that the accused are no longer employed at Serco. <\/p>\n

The provincial Auditor-General\u2019s office is currently examining the province\u2019s approach to commercial truck driver training, examination and licensing programs, its website says.<\/p>\n

Steve Laskowski, president of the Ontario Trucking Association, called on the provincial government to crack down on the \u201csignificant market\u201d for improperly trained drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carriers that employ these drivers have no fear of government reprisal,\u201d he said, noting that truck-inspection stations designed to catch safety hazards do not currently operate around the clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarriers\u2019 places of operation need to be inspected on a regular basis like restaurants,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five employees of driver-licensing centres in Ontario allegedly accepted bribes to manipulate the results of commercial truck-driving tests,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-440410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}