Former Anne Arundel Police officer sentenced in insurance fraud scheme

A federal judge sentenced a former Anne Arundel County Police officer for conspiring to commit wire fraud against insurance companies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District Court of Maryland said in a news release Friday.

Jaron Earl Taylor, 32, pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $38,670 in restitution to USAA. He also was sentenced to serve three years of probation, with his first five months spent in home detention. His sentencing comes after a Prince George’s County Police officer, Michael Anthony Owen Jr., 38, pleaded guilty to falsifying records related to the conspiracy.

From August 2018 to February 2020, the group of officers worked together to report fake losses to insurers in order to collect money and avoid paying off the vehicles, which had depreciated so much in value that they were worth less than the amount owed on them, according to court documents. They helped each other write false police reports to validate their claims and obstructed investigations, the documents said.

A jury convicted one of the officers, Davion Percy, 41, who was chief of the Marlow Heights Special Police Department, of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in June related to the falsified theft of another officer’s vehicle and a claim for it filed with Liberty Mutual Insurance.

USAA paid Taylor $38,670 after he staged a theft of his own Chevrolet Tahoe, alongside Owen. The officers stripped the car and drove it into the woods near Largo, onto a Maryland State Highway property, before Taylor made the false claim, the documents said.

Taylor and Owen also helped get rid of an Infiniti sedan to help another conspirator avoid making payments on the car while on duty overseas in January 2020. That conspirator paid Taylor $1,000 through the Cash App to stage the theft. Taylor then sent the money to Owen, who filed a fake report with Prince George’s County Police, in which he referred to the car as stolen, documents said.

The group moved the car to the top floor of a Camp Springs apartment complex’s parking garage and replaced its license plates, before the vehicle’s owner filed a claim with Geico. The claim was denied due to fraud.

Owen’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18 at 2:30 p.m.