As a Globe and Mail investigation revealed last February, tow-truck drivers have been engaged in a turf war for close to two years.York Regional Police/York Regional Police
In one of the first court judgments relating to the Toronto area’s tow-truck turf wars, an Ontario Court judge condemned the violence within the towing industry and stressed the need for government intervention.
Vera Kasotty, a middle-aged mother of three, pleaded guilty to arson and fraud over $5,000, after making two fraudulent insurance claims last year; one in connection with a staged car crash, and another with an arson scheme.
“Ms. Kasotty participated in a scheme which can only be described as corruption in the towing industry,” Ontario Court Justice David Rose wrote in his decision, released Thursday. “It had tentacles which brought together car towing, repair, rental, and physiotherapy which all become engaged when there is a motor vehicle collision. The scheme involved wildly overcharging for all of these services – sometimes offering little to no value for the payments sought from insurance companies.”
Ms. Kasotty, 61, was one of the more minor players to be charged as part of Project Platinum, a multijurisdictional investigation launched by York Regional Police last spring, into violence and corruption within the Greater Toronto Area towing industry.
As a Globe and Mail investigation revealed last February, tow-truck drivers have been engaged in a turf war for close to two years, fighting for slices of the lucrative collision towing – or accident chasing – business. More than 50 tow trucks have been set on fire in that time, multiple people have been shot and at least four men with ties to the tow-truck industry have been killed.
Ms. Kasotty came onto the police’s radar after popping up on the phone records of one of the primary targets of Project Platinum: Alexander Vinogradsky.
Mr. Vinogradsky, the owner of Paramount Towing and other companies, is facing organized crime charges as well as charges of fraud, mischief and conspiracy to commit arson. The charges against him have not been proven, and his case is before the courts.
“According to the facts admitted by Ms. Kasotty,” the judge’s decision in her case reads, “intercepts on Mr. Vinogradsky’s phone showed that ... Ms. Kasotty was planning to defraud her insurance company ... by staging a collision which would result in the total loss of her Lexus.”
She filed a collision report with police on Mar. 5, 2020, saying her Lexus had been hit by another car while out driving. In reality, the car was damaged on purpose.
“Intercepts revealed that Mr. Vinogradsky coached Ms. Kasotty on how to report the collision to the police,” the judgement reads. She was also told where the car was to be taken. At one point, according to the judgment, her husband texted Mr. Vinogradsky to inquire whether their car would be repaired.
“What you asking me,” Mr. Vinogradsky allegedly replied. “It’s not my first day.”
The insurance company’s net payout for the Lexus, after it was sold for scrap, was $33,009.57.
In a separate case, Ms. Kasotty pleaded guilty to having schemed with her husband to have a transport truck owned by her husband set on fire – again, for an insurance payout.
The transport truck was set on fire on Mar. 29, 2020. Before it could be put out – a feat that took six York Regional Fire Department trucks, two command units and another support unit – the blaze also destroyed two other trucks as well as a Mercedes and a trailer parked nearby.
In his decision, Justice Rose pointed to this collateral damage, stressing that these crimes “are not victimless.”
Even apart from the physical damage, he said: “When an insurance company is defrauded because a car is deliberately destroyed that loss is not borne by the insurer. Rather it is passed along to the other insured motorists by way of higher premiums. Everyone pays more. The broader insured public therefore bears the loss. This is a public fraud.”
Justice Rose noted the many tentacles of towing corruption, and the chain of individuals who stand to gain from a single car accident – even, or especially, when that crash is staged.
For her role in the corruption, Ms. Kasotty received a conditional sentence of two years less a day.
But Justice Rose stressed the limitations of the courts when it comes to addressing the wider violence.
“It is not for a judge of the Ontario Court to recommend changes to the insurance scheme, or the unregulated nature of car towing, which will remedy this problem,” he wrote. “Solving this is the role of the legislature. What I do hope is that the legislature will take this up with the urgency required.”
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