Police usually partner with carriers and brokers to bust insurance scams, but an investigation is suggesting three of the men in blue actually played a role in defrauding those “partners” of $1 million.
The alleged fraud involved a Brampton-based tow truck driver, now confronting criminal charges of his own.
Over several months in 2010, one officer stood accused of providing that driver with reports for three crashes that never happened, according to court documents for a criminal trial.
Those collisions were part of a series of staged crashes, according to a Toronto Star investigation, and they focused on scamming insurance companies of nearly $1 million.
Still that officer isn’t the only one now under the microscope.
At least two other officers in Peel Region have been arrested for working illegally with the driver, including giving the tow truck driver confidential police information about accidents.
In total, the Star is also pointing to about 350 officers, from GTA forces and the OPP, who have been disciplined for serious misconduct.
The presence of a handful of officers working to defraud insurers is surprising, says one industry veteran, but does nothing to negate the overwhelmingly positive partnership between law enforcement and the industry’s associations, carriers and brokers.
Most recently, insurers and police in Western Canada teamed up with big rig truckers for an initiative meant to clamp down on freight theft, estimated at $5 billion annually.
“This has largely been an unreported, unresolved issue,” said Bill Adams, western and Pacific vice-president for the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).
