Four men are facing a total of 16 charges after a carjacking in Markham resulted in the recovery of two stolen vehicles.
York Region police say a man showed up at a Mercedes Benz dealership in Markham around 5 p.m. on April 2 and asked to test drive one of the vehicles. After providing what appeared to be a valid driver’s licence, the man and a dealership employee took a Mercedes SUV out for a drive.
While on Highway 407, the man pulled over and asked the employee to get out of the vehicle. Once stopped, the employee was pushed out of the SUV and the man – along with another suspect who was following the pair in a Range Rover – fled the scene.
Investigators tracked the stolen SUV to an underground parking lot in the area of Weston Road and Highway 7, along with the Range Rover which police later determined was also stolen.
Sean Letellier, 19, of Shelburne, Ont., Yassine Jenkal, 23, of Toronto, Walid Haddoudi, 31, of Montreal and Michel Pothel, 48, of no fixed address were all taken into custody and face several charges of possessing property obtained by crime over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit and indictable offence. Pothel was also charged with robbery, uttering a forged document and breach of probation.
Police say one of the men arrested was already awaiting trial on unrelated charges and was bound by three probation orders including one from Quebec.