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WINDSOR, ONT. — The Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto has sentenced Benabdallah Chouchaoui of Windsor to serve 14 days in jail for violating a 2011 injunction.

According to Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), the injunction prohibited Chouchaoui from using a professional engineer’s seal and offering engineering services to the public unless licensed by PEO, the province’s engineering regulator.

The court also ordered him to reimburse PEO over $21,000 in investigative and legal expenses. PEO had previously been awarded costs for the contempt hearing, amounting to $50,000, the organization notes.

The 2011 injunction, which Chouchaoui was found to have violated, ordered him to refrain from describing himself as an engineer; engaging in the practice of professional engineering in Ontario; offering to the public, and engaging in the business of providing to the public, services that are within the practice of professional engineering; and using an engineer’s seal.

But in 2023 PEO began to receive new complaints.

After an investigation, PEO discovered Chouchaoui had once again misused the seal of a licensed professional engineer and that he continued to advertise his company, Windsor Industrial Development Laboratory Inc. (WIDL), as an engineering firm, the regulator claims.

The contempt motion was heard in April of this year by Justice Gina Papageorgiou. She subsequently found that between 2019 and 2024, Chouchaoui submitted four separate building permit applications to the City of Windsor that included engineering drawings bearing the seal of a licensed engineer. These drawings were neither prepared nor authorized by that engineer and bore falsified or manipulated engineering seals.

In imposing a jail term, Justice Papageorgiou noted the importance of PEO’s licensing and regulatory regime in protecting the public.

“PEO takes allegations of unlicensed engineering very seriously, and actively investigates offences under the Professional Engineers Act,” said PEO CEO/registrar Jennifer Quaglietta in a statement. “We thank our municipal, provincial and other partners and members of the profession and the public in bringing these cases to our attention.”

PEO reminds the public the unauthorized use or forgery of a professional engineer’s seal on letters of committal, construction or design drawings is a quasi-criminal offence under the Professional Engineers Act. Such conduct may also result in criminal charges under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Only licensed individuals can practise professional engineering and only firms with PEO-issued certificates can provide professional engineering services to the public.