Brooklyn Boro

Ex-NYPD cop gets two years for collecting insurance money after torching SUV

July 20, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Carlos Becker, an ex-NYPD highway cop was sentenced to two years in prison for an insurance fraud scheme. AP photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP
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An ex-NYPD cop was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday for fraudulently collecting insurance money after he arranged to have his SUV torched with some police gear inside.

“I take full responsibility for my actions,” Carlos Becker said in Brooklyn federal court, adding that being in prison has been, “humbling.”

For the past eleven and a half months, the 13-year NYPD veteran has been confined to a tiny cell at the Manhattan Detention Center.

“It’s been an eye-opening experience being in prison,” Becker said in court before his lawyer stopped him.

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Before Becker spoke, Judge Margo Brodie said that she already planned to sentence him to two years.

“It is unclear to me why you engaged in this conduct,” Brodie said “You have some issues you have to deal with.”

On Sept. 7, 2012, Adolfo Cruz and another man set Becker’s 2010 Range Rover Sport on fire, destroying it on a residential block in Queens.

Becker, 40, received two checks totaling $34,000 after he told GEICO insurance company that the car was stolen.

Becker pleaded guilty to mail fraud on January 10.

“Carlos Becker has lost everything that he has cared about in his 39 years of life,” Becker’s lawyer, Richard Jasper, wrote in a letter to the court.

Becker was arraigned Aug. 3, 2016 and was fired from the NYPD by December. His wife divorced him while he was in custody.

“It’s a tragic case,” Jasper told reporters. “He wants to move on with his life now.”

The highway cop also collected $20,000 from GEICO when a BMW he bought for $11,000 went up in flames. Becker tried to douse it with four bottles of water from Dunkin Donuts before calling 911, according to court documents.

Between January 2008 and March 2016, Becker submitted nine insurance claims to GEICO and got about $116,000 in payouts, prosecutors wrote in a court letter.

Judge Brodie also ordered mental health treatment for Becker after he was accused of sexually assaulting women, to which he was never charged. Jasper told reporters that Becker denies the allegations.

Due immediately, Becker must pay a fine of $34,261.19.


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