Windsor resident sentenced to jail for violating order to cease representing themselves as a professional engineer

TORONTO, Oct. 22, 2025 /CNW/ - The Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto has sentenced BENABDALLAH CHOUCHAOUI, of Windsor, Ontario, to serve 14 days in jail for violating a 2011 injunction. The injunction prohibited Chouchaoui from using a professional engineer's seal and offering engineering services to the public unless licensed by Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), the province's engineering regulator.

Sentence for contempt of the injunction was imposed on October 15, 2025 and Chouchaoui was immediately taken into custody. The court  also ordered him to reimburse for PEO over $21,000 in investigative and legal expenses. PEO had previously been awarded costs for the contempt hearing, amounting to $50,000.

Per the Professional Engineers Act, in Ontario, only licensed individuals can practise professional engineering and only firms with PEO-issued certificates can provide professional engineering services to the public. Chouchaoui has never been licensed by PEO.

The 2011 injunction, which Chouchaoui was found to have violated, ordered him to refrain from describing himself as an engineer; engaging in the practice of professional engineering in Ontario; offering to the public, and engaging in the business of providing to the public, services that are within the practice of professional engineering; and using an engineer's seal.

Starting in 2023, PEO began to receive new complaints, which it investigated. The regulator eventually discovered that Chouchaoui had once again misused the seal of a licensed professional engineer and that he continued to advertise his company, Windsor Industrial Development Laboratory Inc. (WIDL), as an engineering firm.

The contempt motion was heard in April 2025 by Justice Gina Papageorgiou. She subsequently found that between 2019 and 2024, Chouchaoui submitted four separate building permit applications to the City of Windsor that included engineering drawings bearing the seal of a licensed engineer. These drawings were neither prepared nor authorized by that engineer and bore falsified or manipulated engineering seals.

In imposing a jail term, Justice Papageorgiou noted the importance of PEO's licensing and regulatory regime in protecting the public. She also pointed to the grave risk to Ontarians posed by those who falsify engineering seals or practise engineering without being properly trained and licensed to do so.

"PEO takes allegations of unlicensed engineering very seriously, and actively investigates offences under the Professional Engineers Act," said PEO CEO/Registrar Jennifer Quaglietta, P. Eng., MBA, ICD.D, in response to the court's decision. "We thank our municipal, provincial and other partners and members of the profession and the public in bringing these cases to our attention."

PEO reminds the public that the unauthorized use or forgery of a professional engineer's seal on letters of committal, construction or design drawings is a quasi-criminal offence under the Professional Engineers Act. Such conduct may also result in criminal charges under the Criminal Code of Canada.

How to verify licensure

To check whether an individual is licensed or a firm holds a certificate of authorization (C of A), prospective clients and employers can search the directories of practitioners (licence and C of A holders) at https://peo.on.ca/directory. To report unlicensed individuals and unauthorized companies, contact PEO's unlicensed practice enforcement hotline at 1-800-339-3716, ext. 1444, or email [email protected].

PEO administers the Professional Engineers Act to serve and protect the public interest by licensing Ontario's over 90,000 individual practitioners and engineering firms.

SOURCE Professional Engineers Ontario

For further information: or interviews: Duff McCutcheon, Manager, Communications & Media Relations, Professional Engineers Ontario, Tel: [phone], Email: [email protected]