A former city of Toronto court clerk and four paralegals are facing corruption charges in relation to an alleged traffic ticket-erasing scheme.

In 137 cases, traffic tickets were allegedly withdrawn at the courthouse at 2700 Eglinton Ave. W., removing records of conviction and costing the city an estimated $30,000 in revenue, according to multiple sources and court documents.

Despite the losses, “remediation action was taken to ensure the affected court orders were recorded accurately and defendants notified,” city of Toronto spokesman Brad Ross wrote in email. He wasn’t sure if the fines had now been paid.

This week, four licensed paralegals, Benito Zappia, Payam Javadi, Philip Alexiu and Benito Bennardo were each charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, breach of trust, obstruction of justice, fraud over $5,000 and utter forged documents. They appeared in court Tuesday and were released on bail.

Also alleged to be involved is former City of Toronto employee Frank Rizzello, who was fired from his job last year as a court clerk after a city staff investigation into the allegations, Ross said.

Rizzello was arrested in February and charged with defrauding the city of Toronto of more than $5,000 and breach of trust, allegedly “by altering the Justice of the Peace disposition court documents,” according to the information filed in court.

He’s also charged with knowing a document was forged and using it in the “court dockets and court disposition database.”

In addition, Rizzello, 43, is charged with attempting to conspire with unnamed people “by agreeing to alter and change the registered convictions of a Justice of the Peace” at the Eglinton courthouse, and attempting to obstruct justice by “overturning the Justice of the Peace registered convictions.”

As part of his bail conditions, Rizzello is not to have any contact directly or indirectly with any paralegal working at any provincial courthouse.

None of the paralegals returned a request for comment and Rizzello could not be reached.

They are all scheduled to appear in court on May 27.

The Law Society of Ontario, which regulates lawyers and paralegals, is aware of the criminal charges “against a few licensed paralegals,” and an investigation will follow, a spokeswoman wrote in email.

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The offences allegedly occurred between March 2018 and June 2018.

The Toronto police investigation into the matter is continuing.