Five TTC special constables accused of writing false tickets to homeless people will appear in court on Monday.

In January of 2013, the TTC fired eight of its transit enforcement officers, five of whom are facing criminal charges for allegedly writing false provincial offences tickets to homeless people. The other three officers were fired for undisclosed misconduct, but not charged.

The five officers – Michael Schmidt, Svetomir Catic, Jan Posthumus, Jamie Greenbank, and Neil Malik – were charged with attempting to obstruct justice and fabricating evidence. They will all appear in court Monday as further evidence is presented.

In a report on the Toronto Sun on Monday, one of the special constables says he is the subject of a witch hunt.

Schmidt says he was following orders, claiming his superiors asked him and his colleagues to “pad the stats.”

At the time the employees were fired, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said it’s the TTC’s policy to help the homeless find shelter, rather than further burden them with fines.

“It’s not our practice to issue tickets to homeless people,” he stressed.

The TTC said it will cancel all falsified tickets and assure the persons named in them won’t face any legal or financial consequences.

Ross called the alleged falsification of hundreds of tickets a co-ordinated effort and said homeless people who were known to TTC staff were targeted because they were unlikely to show up in court and had no fixed address with which to track them down.