Const. Elias Mouawad, 25, Is Given a Conditional Discharge, One Year of Probation and 100 Hours of Community Service After Pleading Guilty to One Count of Unauthorized Use of a Computer in the Project South Investigation, and the Breach of Trust Charge Is Withdrawn (October 19, 2026)

Toronto Police Service Const. Elias Mouawad, 25, has been given a conditional discharge, one year of probation and 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty last month to one count of unauthorized use of a computer, CP24 and Global News reported Monday. A breach of trust charge was withdrawn by the Crown. Global News names the judge as Superior Justice Catherine Rhinelander and reports that she said the offence “represents a serious lapse of judgement rather than entrenched behavior,” and that Mouawad’s lawyer, Peter Brauti, said the Crown had been asking for house arrest. Mouawad is one of the people charged in Project South, the York Regional Police investigation that CP24 describes as a sweeping investigation into alleged police corruption. The guilty plea his lawyer first spoke about outside court on September 1 had not been entered at that point.

The Count and the Sentence

Global News reports that Mouawad pleaded guilty last month to one count of unauthorized use of a computer, and that a breach of trust charge was withdrawn. CP24 words the plea the same way and says the breach of trust charge was withdrawn by the Crown.

Global News reports the sentence as a conditional discharge, one year of probation and 100 hours of community service, with a condition that Mouawad have no contact with Daljit Singh or Brian Da Costa. CP24 reports that the conditional discharge is subject to the completion of a one-year probationary period and that he must report to a probation office within two days. Global News explains that a conditional discharge means there is no criminal conviction if the probation conditions are met.

Global News reports that Mouawad remains suspended without pay, that a Toronto police professional standards tribunal will decide the penalty on the employment side, and that no hearing date has been set.

The Licence Plate Query

According to an agreed statement of facts reported by Global News, Mouawad ran an unauthorized licence-plate query for Daljit Singh on January 19, 2026, and the facts state that Singh then handed the information to Brian Da Costa. Global News reports that Crown prosecutor Samuel Walker told the court Singh was overheard on an audio intercept asking Mouawad to run a plate for “his boy,” and that Mouawad thought he was referring to an associate from a security company and did not believe it was related to any criminality. Global News reports the judge noted he did not financially benefit from the query. It also reports that he was working at 11 Division on January 19, 2026, had been with Toronto police about a year and a half, and was arrested in February.

Peter Brauti, counsel for Mouawad, told reporters, “He got a discharge, the Crown was asking for house arrest. There’s a big difference between those two sentences,” and that his client was “a small fish in what’s clearly a big case,” according to Global News.

The Project South Allegations

CP24 describes Project South as a sweeping investigation into alleged police corruption involving 27 suspects, among them eight current and former Toronto police officers, and says York Regional Police revealed the results in February 2026. CP24 reports that investigators said the officers unlawfully accessed a police database and performed searches that produced confidential information, and that in one instance they allegedly leaked that information to a member of organized crime for the purpose of carrying out a killing.

Global News reports that York Regional Police began the investigation in June 2025, looking at alleged leaks from Const. Timothy Barnhardt to criminal networks, and that Da Costa, whom it describes as an alleged large-scale drug trafficker, allegedly bribed Barnhardt for confidential information. Global News reports that several people whose information was queried were later victims of alleged violent crimes, including targeted shootings and an attempted murder of a corrections officer at the Toronto South Detention Centre, that Singh, Da Costa and Barnhardt were subjects of an audio intercept, that Singh is charged with unauthorized use of a computer in the probe, and that Da Costa was also arrested in it. None of those allegations has been tested in court.

Mouawad pleaded guilty to one count and has been sentenced; the allegations against others named in Project South, among them Daljit Singh, Brian Da Costa and Const. Timothy Barnhardt, have not been tested in court, and each is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The allegations are those of the York Regional Police, as reported by CP24 and Global News. No gang or criminal organization has been named in connection with this case.