It is rare anywhere in Canada that a judge holds a surety responsible for the bail money they put up. I've seen it happen time and time again where an accused free on a surety breaches their conditions, gets arrested and is released, yet again on another surety. The courts rarely take conditions or surety amounts seriously. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

BARRIE -- The parents of a 22-year-old Etobicoke man who was convicted of street racing causing death were left financially destitute yesterday after a judge said they must pay $60,000 because their son breached bail conditions and got behind the wheel to drive.


Their son, Prabhjit Multani, pleaded guilty to street racing causing the death of Innisfil truck driver David Virgoe on Hwy. 400 in June 2007. Last February, he was sentenced to 21 months in jail with a 10-year driving prohibition. When he was arrested after the incident, Multani's parents put up $80,000 in bail for their son and he was released on strict conditions not to get behind a steering wheel, and to remain in his parents' home except to go to his college classes. At the time of his release, Justice of the Peace Linda Kay warned him: "If you breach any of these conditions, your parents will lose that money."


But 11 months later, Multani was caught driving while under police surveillance. Multani drove his mother's van one block, made a U-turn in the street right in front of the unmarked police cruiser, then parked the car on the other side of the road. Multani also failed to report to the OPP on three separate occasions. "Mr. Multani showed a callous disregard for his bail conditions when he got behind that wheel," Justice Guy DiTomaso said in his ruling. The judge said Multani's mother was "evasive and untruthful" when she was questioned on the witness stand about the incident.


The parents are now heavily in debt after using their savings and a bank loan to open a gas station that later failed. Multani's father, Daljit Singh, who was a mechanical engineer in India, is now struggling to make ends meet as a car salesman and his mother, Tarvinder, who was a child psychologist in India, isn't working so that she could stay home as a surety for her son.


"They risked everything for their son," the judge said. "They are hard-working immigrants who are trying their best and who came here for a better life." But, he added, financial hardship doesn't absolve them of their promise to the court. "The integrity of our bail system depends on people who take their responsibilities as sureties seriously," he said.


In the end, the judge settled on ordering the parents to pay $60,000 with a standing order that their son must pay the remaining $20,000 when he can.