A Colorado police officer has been arrested on multiple felony counts for allegedly lying about his home and car being burglarized in order to scam his insurance company.
Michael Taylor has been charged with theft, insurance fraud and forgery after allegedly collecting nearly $60,000 in fraudulent claims. Taylor is a corporal in the Silt, Colo., Police Department – and the department’s third-highest ranking member.
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Authorities said that Taylor filed phony reports regarding what he said were burglaries of his home and the value of jewelry he claimed had been stolen, according to a report by the Aspen Daily News.
According to the grand jury indictment, Taylor reported in June of 2010 that his home had been burglarized while he was away. Taylor reported that a Sentry safe, a Rolex watch, a KitchenAid blender, his passport and other items were stolen. His insurer paid him just over $4,000 for the Rolex and $100 for his passport, the indictment said.
“Later investigation revealed that Taylor’s passport was never stolen, and he turned it in to the Department of State to obtain a new passport,” wrote Jason Slothouber, a Colorado assistant attorney general. “In a later interview with investigators Taylor admitted the Rolex was a knockoff he had purchased for only $2,000 years before in Pennsylvania.”
In 2012, Taylor told police that his home had been robbed while he was at a movie and his wife was out of town, the Aspen Daily News reported. This time he claimed, again, that the thieves had stolen his Sentry safe and his passport, along with four valuable pieces of jewelry, including a diamond ring Taylor said had been professionally appraised with a value of $7,500.
Taylor was paid more than $50,000 for this claim, according to the Aspen Daily News.
“Later investigation revealed that Taylor had taken (the ring) to a jeweler shortly before he made his claim, and the ring now had a cubic zirconium stone in it rather than the diamond ring shown in the appraisal…” Slothouber wrote. “Investigations revealed that Taylor’s passport was never stolen because he used it to travel to Mexico after he made this insurance claim.”
Then, in 2015, Taylor allegedly made a false police report claiming that thousands of dollars in jewelry had been stolen from his wife’s car.
“Insurance fraud is a crime that affects everyone in Colorado by driving up premiums and creating red tape for our hardworking and honest citizens,” Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in a statement. “The fact that this alleged criminal behavior was perpetrated by someone who was a sworn police officer, who was supposed to protect Coloradans, makes this even more grievous.”
