JUDGE WISHES `GOOD LUCK' TO MAN ACQUITTED IN HIT-AND-RUN
Fresh from court victory, Ottawa resident still faces charges tied to door-to-door sales
In a Toronto courtroom in June, a man named Saeed Moravvej Torbati was acquitted in a fatal hit-and-run and given an absolute discharge for breaching a court order related to a spousal matter.
“I want to wish Mr. Torbati good luck,” said Superior Court Justice Susan Himel, according to the Toronto Star's coverage. “I don't expect that the courts will ever see you before us again.”
Torbati, over Zoom, was described as nodding in agreement.
Curiously, the court was not troubled by the trail of hardship left by Torbati's companies across Ottawa, nor the raft of provincial charges he is still facing under the Consumer Protection Act.
In April 2019, the Ottawa resident and his corporations were charged with dozens of offences stemming from door-to-door sales that were allegedly made after false or deceptive representations. Torbati was charged as a director of Ontario Stars Corp., also doing business as Ontario Safety Standards.
It didn't end there.
The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services said Friday there are still 157 active charges against Torbati, the bulk for “failing to take reasonable care” as a director of companies in the Safety Standards “group.”
Postmedia and other media outlets have run numerous stories outlining how Safety Standards companies sold consumers home service products they didn't need (water softeners, air filters) in 10-year contracts they didn't understand and couldn't break. In many cases — unknown to homeowners — liens were placed on properties for the full value of the contracts, a sum that could easily reach $10,000.
Some of the cases were heartbreaking: the vulnerable elderly who lived alone; those with cognition problems; or new Canadians who believed the products were part of a government program that would save them money. Undoing the deals was near impossible, as the sales, installation and monthly bill collection were done by different corporate entities.
“Good luck” did not visit their transactions.
While Torbati has typically avoided any interviews, the criminal case in Toronto, defended by high-profile lawyer Brian Greenspan, at least sheds light on his background. Torbati was contacted for comment but did not reply by deadline.
According to the judge's summary, he was born and raised in Iran and came to Canada when he was 19. Now 30, he is divorced from his first wife, an Ottawa woman, and they have a daughter. He is said to be in a second relationship that produced twin daughters in 2020. After spending a couple of years at Algonquin College, court was told he started Ontario Stars Corp., “a home improvement financing business,” in 2015.
On March 31, 2016 — the case took five years to come to trial — Torbati was driving a 2012 Mercedes-Benz on Markham Road in Toronto on a rainy evening with poor visibility. Driving about 75 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, he struck a 56-year-old pedestrian who was walking against the red light.
Court was told that, as the woman lay dying from catastrophic injuries, Torbati stopped the car, went over to see her on the road for a few seconds and, “looking panicked,” returned to his car and drove away.
Much of the trial was taken up by Torbati's defence the accident reignited a post-traumatic condition that arose from seeing his father die after a car accident in Iran when he was 13. A psychiatrist who interviewed Torbati (three times) supported his contention he went into an “autopilot” state that stopped him from thinking logically.
There was no suggestion Torbati was impaired or driving recklessly that night. (The speeding was put down to “flow of traffic.”) After leaving the scene, he parked the car in a lot about two kilometres away and took an Uber to his condo, where his first wife was visiting.
His actions after the crash were much examined. He booked a ticket to Iran — a flight he never boarded — and he and his wife, who didn't know the extent of the accident, retrieved the Mercedes the next day.
Police, meanwhile, were quickly gathering surveillance video and witness statements, but still looking for the hit-and-run driver. Two days after the fatality, a motorist came forward with video from a dashboard camera that caught the licence plate of the Mercedes.
On April 3, Torbati was named in a police news release as a “person of interest” in the case. That same day, after consulting a lawyer, he surrendered to police. (He told court he consulted an Ottawa lawyer the night of the crash and was told he was not required “to do anything right now.”)
Court heard Torbati was facing a charge of domestic assault at the time of the crash (he was later acquitted). A period of heavy drinking began in the summer after the fatality, when he would consume 10 to 15 drinks almost nightly, binge consumption that continued until the end of 2018.
The judge ruled the Crown did not prove that Torbati was trying to escape civil or criminal liability that evening and accepted that flashbacks of his father's death accounted for his illogical thinking and behaviour.
Court heard that Torbati and his first wife — to whom the Mercedes lease and insurance were assigned — are being sued for $2.5 million by the family of victim Jogeswary Cumarasamy.
Calling him “a very impressive young man,” Greenspan said he is not acting for Torbati on the provincial charges.