2nd man arrested, facing nearly 100 charges in Toronto auto-fraud investigation

Service Ontario office in Kingston, Ont., on March 23, 2016. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

A second man has been arrested and is facing nearly 100 criminal charges in connection with an auto-fraud investigation in Toronto.

Toronto police said investigators first received information back in July about “fraudulent” vehicle transfers happening at ServiceOntario locations.

Police said ServiceOntario assisted investigators, and it was found that a suspect was allegedly responsible for numerous vehicle-related frauds dating back to November 2023.

A search warrant was executed on Aug. 9 and Winkle Lejarde, 43, of Toronto, was arrested as a result, police said.

Lejarde is facing 101 charges, including 15 counts of uttering forged documents, nine counts of fraud over $5,000, and nine counts of altering or removing a vehicle identification number.

On Wednesday, police said they’d arrested a second man in connection with the alleged frauds. As a result, Toronto resident Kris Kattick, 34, is facing 95 charges, including 17 counts of uttering a forged document and eight counts of fraud over $5,000.

Kattick made his first court appearance on Sunday. The allegations against both of the accused have not been tested in court.

“In order to protect against purchasing a stolen/re-vinned vehicle, it is recommended to always purchase and review a vehicle history report,” police said in a news release.

Re-vinning is defined by Toronto police as changing a vehicle's identification number to a fabricated one for the purpose of concealing that a vehicle is stolen.

When buying a vehicle, police said a car may have been re-vinned if there are “sudden” colour changes to the car itself on the vehicle history report. Other red flags include if the odometer mileage went down between owners or if there are indications that the vehicle was previously exported with no import certificate back to Canada.