A Brooklyn cop faces seven years behind bars for an alleged scheme to dupe his insurance provider by setting his own car ablaze in 2016, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
A grand jury slapped a 15-year Police Department veteran with an 11-count indictment on Aug. 22, which includes charges of third- and fourth-degree insurance fraud, first-degree falsifying business records, third-degree attempted grand larceny, and related counts, according to Gonzalez, who noted he was released without bail and ordered to return to court on Oct. 23
The defendant — who most recently patrolled the streets of Borough Park with the 66th Precinct — first reported that his 2006 BMW 650i convertible had been stolen on Christmas Day in 2016, before filing two additional police reports, followed by an affidavit with State Farm Mutual Automobile Company that he had last seen the car near his Crown Heights home on Dec. 22 of that year, prosecutors said.
The badge-toting defendant’s plot began to unravel when his colleagues matched the cop’s missing BMW to the registration of a ruined convertible found scorched in East New York on Dec. 20 — two days before the officer said he’d last seen his Beamer, according to Gonzalez’s office.
Caught in a lie, the patrolman doubled down and told investigators with State Farm that he had actually last moved the car on Dec. 8, 2016, without providing any reasonable excuse for the mix up, prosecutors said.
Gonzalez blasted the defendant for betraying the badge, claiming his actions undermined the public’s trust in Kings County law enforcement.
“That this crime was allegedly committed by a police officer is troublesome, because we demand honesty and integrity from all of our law enforcement officials,” said the DA. “We intend to hold this defendant accountable.”
The defendant was immediately suspended without pay following his arrest, according to a spokesman for the Police Department.
