Car thieves tried accessing Ontario transportation ministry database

Unsold 2024 sports-utility vehicles sit on the lot of a Mercedes-Benz dealership Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (David Zalubowski / AP Photo)

The make and model of your vehicle, as well as your home address, have become a sought after commodities on the black market.

One of Canada's largest police forces has knowledge of car thieves attempting to breach Ontario's Ministry of Transportation (MTO) database, CTV News has learned.

Nick Milinovich, Peel Police Deputy Chief, reveals that criminals are "doing anything and everything they can to locate those vehicles. We have seen them try and access MTO records," he told CTV National News.

The tactic "could include accessing cheques through the ministry of transport," he added.

Access to information is at a premium for organized crime, according to Milinovich and other police officers who spoke with CTV News.

Asked whether criminal organizations have recently accessed the private details of vehicle owners, the ministry was unable to answer the question. In an email, however, a ministry spokesperson said that when it comes to their own staff, "everyone accessing personal information is subject to internal control measures and security screening checks."

It's a potential reality, that isn't sitting well with recent car theft victims.

"It seems that we're in serious trouble," shares James, a vehicle theft victim who's only sharing his first name, fearful his family could become a target again. Just last week, his Land Rover was stolen from his driveway.

"I think we were all warned about this over the years, that relying on digital format for everything is going to come back and haunt us, and I think if this is happening at MTO there’s a lot of other things we have to be worried about," says James.

Ontario has a history of auto theft rings infiltrating its government ministries.

In December, Toronto police investigators shared that Service Ontario employees had allegedly sold the personal information of hundreds of drivers across the province -- including their home addresses -- to suspects said to be involved in an auto theft ring in Toronto.

Dubbed Project Safari, seven people were arrested by Toronto police, including three Service Ontario employees. In total, 73 charges were laid.

Insurance companies now have their own investigators tracking the trends.

Bryan Gast is a former detective with the OPP and VP of investigative services at The Equite Association, which investigates fraud on behalf of the insurance industry.

"Ontario had over one billion dollars of stolen vehicles and that's a significant amount of money," he says. "That's what criminals are after. They're after that lucrative market."

Police note that while in some cases they’ve been successful in arresting individuals who they say were stealing information from transportation agencies, investigators feel that they're only scratching the surface of a much larger organized crime operation that stretches across the country and beyond.