Yet another police officer has pled guilty to involvement in an insurance fraud scheme.
A York Regional Police officer was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine last week, as well as more than $21,000 in restitution, after pleading guilty to “knowingly making a false or misleading statement or representation to an insurer” under the Insurance Act.
Const. Stuart Coleman and two others were criminally charged with the act in July of last year, after allegations of misuse of company insurance benefits, the York Regional Police said. The trio all faced one count each of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, uttering false documents and fraud over $5,000.
Criminal charges were laid by the YRP Professional Standards Bureau were dismissed, as well as charges against the two co-accused, Ruth Coleman and Michael McCleary.
Coleman, however, was ordered to pay the fine and $21,547.71 in restitution to the Regional Municipality of York as the insurance benefit provider. Coleman is suspended with pay and is being investigated in a Police Services Act investigation.
The plea is the latest incident in a series of allegations against police officers. York police also revealed charges had been laid against another officer, Const. Salwa Husseini, last spring with two counts of uttering false documents and fraud under $5,000.
And York Regional Police last year proceeded with an internal probe into an alleged insurance benefits scam that involved phoney physiotherapy and eyeglass claims. At the time, the scam was suspected to have been operating for nine months.
Halton Regional Police also launched an investigation in November against an eight-year veteran for one count of fraud under $5,000 in relation to fraudulent submissions of benefit claims.
More recently, Peel Regional Police Const. Carlton Watson was convicted of more than 40 charges of insurance fraud, breach of trust and obstructing justice. Watson was paid in cash by two men, including a tow truck driver and manager, to provide accident reports that passed off staged or bogus car crashes as legitimate.
The scam bilked insurance companies out of more than $1 million.
