This story is reprinted with permission from FC&S Legal, the industry's only comprehensive digital resource designed for insurance coverage law professionals. Visit the website to subscribe.
Carlos Becker, a former police officer with the New York City Police Department (NYPD), has been sentenced to two years in prison for submitting a false insurance claim after directing accomplices to burn his car.
On January 10, 2017, Becker pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for his role in a scheme to defraud the Government Employees Insurance Company (Geico). He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Margo K. Brodie.
Becker also was ordered to pay $34,261.19 in restitution to Geico.
Had accomplices set fire to Range Rover
As set forth in court documents, in September 2012, Becker, while employed as a police officer with the NYPD, directed accomplices to set fire to Becker's Range Rover so that Becker could file a fraudulent insurance claim with Geico and collect the insurance proceeds.
According to prosecutors, during the early morning hours of September 7, 2012, Becker's accomplices set fire to the Range Rover on a residential street in Queens. New York City firefighters responded to a 911 call about the Range Rover fire and put it out.
Claimed vehicle stolen
The government contended that Becker then submitted a fraudulent claim to Geico, claiming that the Range Rover had been stolen from a parking space in front of his house in Hempstead, New York, and that the car was later found burned.
The government said that, based on his fraudulent claim, in January 2013, Geico mailed two checks to Becker in the amounts of $29,480.86 and $4,780.33.
Steven A. Meyerowitz, Esq., is the director of FC&S Legal, the editor-in-chief of the Insurance Coverage Law Report, and the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc. Email him at smeyerowitz@meyerowitzcommunications.com.
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