Montreal’s first-ever Jewish mayor has been arrested on 14 counts of corruption.

Michael Applebaum was taken away yesterday by UPAC, the police’s anti-corruption unit, to be charged with “conspiracy, fraud, breach of trust and corruption”, according to UPAC head Robert Lafreniere.

The charges relate to two real estate projects in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough between 2006 and 2011, while Applebaum was mayor of the borough.

Applebaum was elected in November 2012 by city councillors to become Montreal’s 42nd Mayor after the previous incumbent, Gérald Tremblay, resigned in the light of corruption allegations.

Speaking just after he was voted into office, Applebaum insisted that targeting corruption was one of his top priorities: “We have to bring back pride and trust in elected officials to the city of Montreal. You have to be able to catch that collusion and corruption.”