Police Officers Enter Plea In Auto Insurance Fraud Scheme

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A former Prince George's police officer has entered a plea after facing federal charges in connection to an auto insurance fraud scheme. An Anne Arundel County police officer also has entered a plea.

Michael Anthony Owen, Jr., 36, of Accokeek pleaded guilty to falsification of records and Jaron Earl Taylor, 31, of Fort Washington pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to the guilty pleas, between August 2018 and February 2020, Owen and Taylor, who were active duty police officers at the time, conspired with fellow police officers to engage in mail and wire fraud. Owen and Taylor, along with officers Candace Tyler, Conrad D’Haiti and Davion Percy, and others, developed a scheme for insurance companies to pay out the remaining financing costs of unwanted vehicles, according to court documents.

The police officers reported fake losses to insurers to obtain money or avoid paying off vehicles that were now worth less than the amount owed on them. The co-conspirators used their statuses as police officers to assist each other’s claims by writing false police reports. Then co-conspirators submitted fictitious police reports to insurers to validate the claim. The false police reports were intended to impede, obstruct or influence subsequent investigations of the false insurance claims, court documents showed.

In August 2018, Owen and Taylor staged the theft of Taylor’s Chevrolet Tahoe. After Taylor filed a false police report, Owen and Taylor stripped the vehicle and drove it deep into the woods of a Maryland State Highway property near Largo. Taylor then made a false claim to the United Services Automobile Association for the loss for which USAA paid out a total of $38,670, the prosecution shared.

Then in January 2020, Owen helped D’Haiti avoid payment on the loan balance of a Jaguar XKR. In cooperation with D’Haiti and Percy, Owen devised a scheme to fake the vehicle’s theft. On Jan. 4, D’Haiti parked his Jaguar behind Marlow Heights Shopping Center where Percy worked as police chief. D’Haiti then paid Percy $350 to arrange for another co-conspirator to tow the vehicle and extensively vandalize it for the purpose of creating a total insurance loss. Tyler filed the fictitious police report, which D’Haiti used to substantiate his claim against Liberty Mutual Insurance. In February 2020, Liberty Mutual paid the Jaguar’s lienholder, Navy Federal Credit Union, $17,585, on the false claim, court documents showed.

In January 2020, Owen and Taylor helped dispose of an Infiniti sedan to help a co-conspirator avoid making further payments on the vehicle while on extended overseas duty. The co-conspirator gave Taylor $1,000 via CashApp to stage the theft. Taylor then forwarded the money to Owen who filed a false police report with PGPD, stating the vehicle was stolen. But in reality, Owen, Taylor and others moved the car to the top floor of a Camp Springs apartment-complex parking garage. The co-conspirators attempted to conceal the car’s identity by removing the vehicle’s license plates and replacing them with different ones registered to another vehicle. Then the owner and co-conspirator filed a claim with GEICO that was eventually denied on grounds of fraud, the prosecution stated.

Owen faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Taylor faces a maximum sentence of three years in federal prison if the court fully accepts the plea deal. Both sentencings are scheduled for Sept. 23.