Tow truck firm hit with suit over teen’s death
Paramount Towing accused of giving student illegal gun in $2.45M suit
A GTA tow truck operator has been hit with a $2.45 million negligence lawsuit after a student working as a security guard was fatally shot in the head with an unregistered handgun while guarding a lot for vehicles damaged in accidents.
The lawsuit names Alexander Vinogradsky, the administrator of 2182586 ONTARIO INC., aka Paramount Towing, for damages in the death of Peter Petrov Simov, 19, in 2019 in Toronto. The allegations are not proven in court.
A phone call and text message to Vinogradsky’s personal phone and phone calls and electronic messages to Vinogradsky’s businesses were not returned Monday.
The lawsuit was filed in June, a month after Vinogradsky was arrested in a crackdown on the GTA towing industry called “Project Platinum,” in which he was charged with several organized crime offences, including participating in a criminal organization and recruiting for a criminal organization.
At the time of the arrests, York Regional Police accused Paramount Towing and rival firms of defrauding insurance companies and working with auto repair shops and car and truck rental companies to carry out their frauds.
The allegations in the lawsuit surround the death of Simov,
who died of a gunshot wound to the head in the evening of Dec. 28, 2019, while working at a vehicle lot on Champagne Drive in Toronto.
Simov’s family state in the lawsuit, filed in June at the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto, that they were advised by police that the firearm with which Peter Simov was shot was found in his car and that it was an illegal, unregistered “ghost gun.”
The lawsuit also states that Toronto police told Simov’s family that the fatal shot was most likely self-inflicted, and that nothing in his browsing history suggests he was looking to obtain a gun.
The lawsuit states that he had sent text messages to his girlfriend a “few hours before he was pronounced dead, stating that his employer has offered him a firearm and that he has taken it.” The lawsuit states that Simov’s father, Peter, mother, Adriana, and older sister Nadezhda are each entitle to damages for the death. The lawsuit alleges that the younger Simov’s employer was Vinogradsky and an unidentified party, referred to only as “John Doe.”
The lawsuit alleges that Vinogradsky is guilty of “negligence and breach of duty of care” for an employee by supplying Simov with “a firearm that does not have a registration certificate (an illegally obtained and possessed firearm aka a ghost gun)”.
It also states that the employer should have known “that Peter did not have a firearms licence or any training in handling firearms, and ought not to have offered any firearm to Peter.”
“The Employer knew or ought to have known that Peter could pose a danger to himself or to others if in possession of a firearm, but nevertheless gave him one,” the statement of claim continues.
The lawsuit states that the death caused his family “mental distress and psychological trauma,” as well as a loss of care, guidance and companionship that they might have reasonably expected to receive from Peter, if he had not been killed.”