Half a year after the Edmonton Police Service accused nearly a dozen tow truck operators of fraud, the charges were quietly dropped.
In May of 2025, police charged 11 owners of 10 local tow truck companies, accusing them of fraudulent billing practices involving insurance companies.
Police claimed the 10 different tow truck operators, who did not have any professional connection to one another, billed the insurance companies an estimated combined total of over $120,000.
Between March and May of 2025, police said they charged the owners of the following companies with fraud:
- AMK Towing — Mostafa Khalaf, 28
- Avenue Towing — Madlool Traim, 52
- Discount Towing Ltd. — Mahmoud El Annan, 42
- Edmonton Towing Services Ltd. — Parminder Swatch, 46, and Ravinder Toor, 51
- Infinity Towing & Recovery Services Corp. — Mehdi El Alouane 41
- My Big Tow Inc. — Mahmoud Mahdaoui, 42
- Same Boss Towing Ltd. (formerly Super Towing Ltd.) — Hasan Al-Adhban, 49
- TBT Towing Ltd. — Sukhijinder Singh, 38
- Unlimited Towing & Recovery Service Ltd. — Ahmed Ait Rais, 38
- 2652736 Alberta Inc. — Rojan Sivarajah, 35
However, between the beginning of November and mid-December 2025, court records obtained by Global News show all of those people had their fraud charges withdrawn.
“Being accused and being convicted is very different,” said Robin Swatch, media manager for Edmonton Towing Services Ltd.
Swatch told Global News on Wednesday one of their staff was allegedly engaging in predatory behaviour, but it was not a practice known to the owners nor encouraged.
“People can’t just jump to accusations because of something, saying it’s our fault even though we had no idea what was going on.”
Swatch said Edmonton Towing hired a sub-contractor from Ontario, who was allegedly overcharging people and pocketing the money for himself.
“It was his fault, but our company name, so that’s why we ended up in the scandal,” Swatch said. “We have him terminated now.”
Madlool Traim, the owner of Avenue Towing, was also charged with fraud last spring.
He said the charge was deemed a mistake shortly after it was laid, but it couldn’t be official dropped until it had gone through the courts six months later.
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He says the public backlash in the meantime was terrible.
“Our name was in social media. Nobody was wanting to hire us. Nobody wanted to do any business with us.”
Despite the charges being dropped, Traim said the situation has had devastating impacts on his business, his family of seven children, and his mental health.
Global News attempted to reach several of the company owners named by police, including Mahmoud El Annan with Discount Towing Ltd., who did not want to speak on camera but in a statement said:
“Discount Towing Ltd. is indeed on the list during the police investigation about a year ago. Even though the investigation found absolutely no evidence of fraud on our part and all charges were dropped, the lingering online mentions of that investigation have unfortunately impacted our business reputation.”
Why exactly the case was dropped is not known.
Michelle Davio, spokesperson for the Crown, said in a statement, “The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service thoroughly reviewed these matters and determined there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction due to insufficiency of the available admissible evidence.
“As such, charges were withdrawn over the course of November and December 2025.”
Global News asked Edmonton police about the case and was referred back to the courts.
Neither said what evidence was missing or lacked the strength to proceed with the charges. They also did not say why the charges were originally pursued.
While all the fraud charge was withdrawn against Hasan Al-Adhban, 49, of Same Boss Towing Ltd. (formerly Super Towing Ltd.), a charge of theft over $5,000 against him was stayed — which means the Crown could potentially revive it within a year.
Last spring, police said they’d been investigating for nearly a year the business practices of tow truck companies that were allegedly demanding people to use their services at the scenes of collisions.
Police said during their investigation, officers discovered numerous tow truck companies in Edmonton were allegedly fraudulently billing insurance companies for services that were not provided.
EPS said they also learned the companies were allegedly inflating bills, including charging upwards of $5,000 for a basic collision tow that is estimated to typically cost only a few hundred dollars.
Global News has updated the outcome of the court process in its original reporting on the allegations.
It was predatory practice the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) has also issued a warning about. The AMA said unethical operators will arrive at a collision or breakdown scene uninvited, create a false sense of urgency to move the vehicle, and ultimately leave drivers facing huge fees.
The AMA said until 2024, tow truck “accident chasers” were virtually non-existent. But then, last summer, the province saw a sharp increase in complaints — Edmonton and Calgary, in particular.
The AMA said it’s important to know your rights before scammers show up:
- You have the right to refuse unsolicited towing services
- You have the right to choose who tows your vehicle, and where, unless otherwise directed by police
- You have the right to access your vehicle to retrieve personal items during a storage facility’s business hours
- You have the right to ask if the towing company receives a kickback for taking your vehicle to a particular storage facility or repair shop
- You have the right to a quote prior to service, and an itemized invoice prior to making payment
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
