An Ontario judge has sentenced two Indian immigrants to house arrest for running fraudulent truck driving schools that offered sub-standard training for newcomers from South Asia.
After a five-week trial at Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, a jury convicted Gurvinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh of one count each of fraud over $5,000 and uttering a forged document.
“Their convictions arose from the fraudulent mandatory entry-level training that each offered to students seeking a Class A driver’s licence,” Justice Pierre Roger wrote in a recent decision.
He gave both men conditional sentences of two years less a day, to be served in the community.
“The magnitude, complexity, duration, number of victims, and degree of planning involved in the offences is aggravating,” Roger said in his decision, dated Oct. 29.
“This was an elaborate scheme by the offenders. It involved close to 50 truck driver students each and lasted over two years. The offences impacted the community and the truck driver students. The truck driver students were robbed of the proper training they had paid for, and their lack of proper training created an additional risk to the welfare of road users, impacting the community and the reputation of truck drivers.”
The Crown argued unsuccessfully that the men should be imprisoned for five years.
“They argue that a penitentiary sentence is the norm in cases of large-scale fraud, and that the range in such cases is at least three to five years,” said the decision.
“The offenders argue that this is not a large-scale fraud. Alternatively, they argue that the circumstances of this case, including proportionality and parity of sentences, warrant departing from the range. They say that a fit sentence for each of the offenders is a conditional sentence of 12 to 18 months.”
In 2017, Ontario brought in “mandatory entry-level training (MELT) for residents of Ontario seeking to obtain a Class A licence,” said the decision. “A Class A licence is the licence required to drive large commercial trucks.”
An important goal of the training “is to increase safety for road users,” it said. “MELT strives to increase safety by implementing minimum entry-level standards which commercial truck drivers must meet before they can attempt their Class A licence road test. MELT includes a minimum of instructional hours offered by qualified instructors teaching specific standardized skills deemed required by the Commercial Truck Driver Training Standard (Class A) of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation … to safely drive large commercial trucks. MELT may be offered by registered private career colleges.”
Without proof of it, people who want to become commercial truck drivers can’t schedule a road test.
The court heard that, between January 2019 and May 2021, Gurvinder and Gurpreet Singh, “occasionally paid an interpreter, Hanifa Khokhar, to facilitate some of their respective students to cheat on their Class A knowledge tests. Ms. Khokhar suggested some of the answers during her interpretation services.”
Hanifa’s husband, Mohamed Khokhar, was also involved in the scam, by assisting his wife and collecting the money.
Gurvinder Singh, 69, of Laval, Que., and Gurpreet Singh, 37, of Saint Eustache, Que., both “operated a truck driver school (not registered as a private career college nor authorized to offer MELT) that fraudulently did not offer its students the minimum training required to satisfy the MELT standards,” said the decision.
“Instead, each of the offenders, at his respective truck driver school, obtained payment from its commercial truck driver candidates or students yet offered only basic truck driver training that did not comply with the MELT course standards.”
Both men “then circumvented the MELT certification process by paying for unlawful access to the (Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s) database to falsify their students’ MELT completion,” said the decision.
“Each paid Charanjit Deol and her husband, who operated a registered private career college authorized to offer MELT, to access the (ministry’s) database and upload information which falsely confirmed that the offenders’ respective commercial truck driver candidates or students had completed the MELT.”
Gurvinder and Gurpreet Singh “generally charged their students between $4,000 and $5,000 for the truck driver training that they offered,” said the decision.
“This is slightly less than what was charged for MELT training by approved or registered private career colleges.”
Their students “were of South Asian ethnicity, largely new immigrants,” said the decision. “The language spoken during training was mostly Punjabi.”
The Singhs “supplied trucks, trailers, instructors (frequently unqualified), and offered some commercial truck driver training which, however, did not meet the MELT standards,” said the decision.
Most of the students who testified “were satisfied with the training and services that they received from the offenders,” said the decision. “Some were thankful for the services they received and for their truck driver career.”
The court did not hear any evidence that anyone was hurt due to the scam.
“Moreover, despite the risks posed by licenced Class A drivers driving commercial trucks without having completed the MELT, there is no evidence that the Class A licence of any of the offenders’ students was revoked or made subject to additional MELT training or related conditions,” said the decision. “Similarly, there is no evidence why such measures were not put in place by the relevant authorities.”
All four of their co-accused plead guilty to fraud.
Gurvinder Singh works as a commercial truck driver, said the decision. “He immigrated to Canada from India in 2002 and is a Canadian citizen.”
Gurpreet Singh immigrated to Canada as a student, said the decision. “He owns and operates a delivery company and is the only source of income of his family.” The Crown confirmed Tuesday that he’s a Canadian citizen.
Their students were “tricked and deceived by the offenders into paying for substandard truck driver training,” said the decision.
The decision notes that “leaves truck driver students ill-prepared, could lead to dangerous situations, and jeopardizes road safety. This puts the public at risk.”
The court heard that Gurvinder and Gurpreet Singh “were respected in their community, and most of the students were referred to them by acquaintances,” said the decision.
As part of their conditional sentence orders, both men must each perform 200 hours of community services
“Both offenders are in stable relationships, work, and contribute to their family and to society,” Roger said. “Neither pose a risk to the safety of their community, including a risk of reoffending, and both have demonstrated that they can abide by conditions.”
The judge also granted a forfeiture order against Gurpreet Singh for the tractor portion of three Volvo trucks, with a combined market value of about $100,000, after the Crown argued “that they were used in the commission of the offence of fraud.”
Canadian provinces have experienced their share of troubles with immigrant truckers.
In 2018, 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos Junior A hockey team were killed when Jaskirat Singh Sidhu drove his semi-truck through a Saskatchewan highway stop sign at 100 km/h after ignoring its multiple preceding road signs and flashing lights.
The Broncos tragedy inspired a number of jurisdictions to introduce MELT into their licensing regimes, which require drivers to complete more than 100 hours of instruction.
Two years earlier in Ontario, Sarbjit Singh Matharu, driving on two hours of sleep and with a falsified logbook, caused an 11-vehicle pileup on Highway 400 and killed four people.
In 2017, a year after Matharu’s collision, transport truck driver Baljinder Singh, also a permanent resident, rammed a queue of vehicles that had slowed to a stop in a construction zone, killing four.
In 2019, Gurdeep Singh Dhaliwal was charged with stunt driving his semi on the 401, travelling less than 10 metres behind another transport truck. In 2022, Mehakdeep Singh received five years in prison for killing two young children and their grandmother on the same highway when he rammed them at full speed.
Just last year, Balwinder Dhaliwal was charged with driving his transport truck the wrong way on the 401. Another trucker, Ravinder Rai, was caught driving drunk that year on Highway 11.
Earlier this year, Jagmeet Grewal was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing four people by crashing into a line of vehicles on a Laval highway.
A similar collision happened near Brossard, south of Montreal, in 2022, killing two and injuring 10. Driver Baljeet Singh fled to the United States and only returned to Canada recently after several months of extradition hearings.
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