In a stinging court judgment, the owner of an unfinished 'monster home' in Brampton has been handed a blow after a judge, describing his behaviour as ‘egregious’, awarded a large payout to the city to deter others from misusing the justice system.

Ahmed Elbasiouni, owner of 443 Centre St. N., must pay nearly $51,000 in costs— the largest amount a court has awarded in such a case — in an ongoing dispute with the City of Brampton that has divided the community and pitted neighbours against one another.

Elbasiouni told The Guardian that city staff denied crucial information during examinations, and that he has asked the court for direction on possibly escalating the matter. Elbasiouni challenged the decision handed down by Superior Court Justice Kofi Barnes that he "sought to mislead and perpetuate a fraud" on the court.

In court documents obtained by The Guardian, Justice Barnes upholds the city’s 2013 decision to revoke the property owner’s building permit. Barnes determined that Elbasiouni filed a fraudulent document in support of a motion to reopen the appeal process in order to obtain a different result.

“The appellant provided sworn information to the court that he knew was false. The appellant’s conduct is unacceptable,” wrote Barnes, adding that the $50,976.96 indemnity costs are to “discourage frivolous and vexatious claims.”

According to court documents, Elbasiouni filed a document he claimed would show zoning had changed more than a decade ago and would support the land use. Following an extensive search of city records, staff could not verify the document’s authenticity. Building department staff also denied Elbasiouni’s claims that he showed them the zoning document.

“He engaged the judicial process under false pretense,” states Barnes, who takes Elbasiouni to task for levelling “unproven allegations of fraud and conspiracy against the respondents.”

Elbasiouni has been locked in legal wranglings since 2013 when the city ordered him to demolish the structure, which at one point called for eight bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and around 13,000 square feet of living space.

Residents and councillors argue the house is bigger than what was allowed under the city’s zoning bylaws. Elbasiouni has maintained all along that he received approval from the city to build the home. The municipality counters that the building permits were issued by mistake because of a “computer mapping error.”

Elbasiouni has since taken on the city on a number of fronts including launching a $20-million lawsuit against the municipality.