Ottawa cop resigns after criminal charges in tow-truck kickback scheme stayed

An Ottawa police constable who was once accused of planning an ATM heist and trading tips for tows has resigned from the Ottawa Police Service, CBC News has learned.

The resignation means all three police officers who were criminally charged in a tow-truck kickback scheme are no longer on the local force.

In a statement to CBC News on Wednesday, the Ottawa Police Service confirmed Hussein Assaad's resignation but did not offer further details, nor comment on the end of its own disciplinary process against the officer.

Assaad declined to comment.

RCMPcharged OPS officers in 2020

Assaad and two other former Ottawa cops, Kevin Putinski and Andrew Chronopoulos, were charged with corruption-related offences by the RCMP in 2020.

The Mounties first began investigating allegations of corruption against Assaad in July 2019. As the case grew, they secured wiretaps and planted a listening device in Assaad's personal vehicle.

Three civilians were also charged in the plot. Yet in the end, all but one of the criminal charges laid against the entire group were either withdrawn or stayed.

In March of this year, the criminal cases against all of the police officers ended.

The charges against Assaad and a civilian co-accused in the plot were stayed because of an unreasonable delay in prosecution.

Two weeks before that, Putinski and Chronopoulos made plea deals.

In exchange for their badges and public admissions that they sold tips on collision locations to tow truck operators, the corruption offences against them were all stayed.

Putinskipleaded guilty to one count of fraud for filing a fake insurance claim and was given a conditional discharge of 18 months of probation. Chronopoulos, though he admitted to committing breaches of trust when he sold tips on collisions to tow truck drivers to give them a competitive edge, did not plead guilty to any crime.

The RCMP case against all of the accused, though they were prosecuted separately,includedallegations of the selling of secret police information,paying out cops, tipping off suspects to the police cases against them, and planning to carry out an ATM heist by orchestrating a shooting in another part of town to distract police officers. The bulk of those allegations were never proven.

Assaad's resignation also ends his time on paid suspension from the service.