Baltimore Police Officer Pulled Over in Insurance Scam

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr., announced that Tamira Thompson of Anne Arundel County was convicted of felony insurance fraud in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County.

The conviction follows a joint investigation conducted by the Insurance Fraud Division of the Maryland Insurance Administration and the Office of the Attorney General. The Baltimore City Police Department employs Thompson as a police officer. She had been charged with engaging in a continuing course of conduct between Oct. 15, 2003 and Nov. 20, 2003 in which she knowingly presented false information to Progressive Insurance Company in an attempt to support a false claim for $3,014.20.

Evidence reportedly presented by the prosecutor included that on Oct. 15, 2003, Thompson reported to Progressive Insurance Company that on that date she had struck a light pole and damaged the front of her 1991 Acura Legend which, she said, she had purchased five days earlier.

An inspection of Thompson’s vehicle by a Progressive Insurance Company adjuster on Oct. 15, 2003 found damage to the vehicle that was inconsistent with Thompson’s description of the accident. In a statement Thompson gave to Progressive Insurance Company Thompson claimed to have purchased the automobile from a car company in Washington, D.C. She presented documents to the insurance company that included a “Dealer’s Special Certificate” purporting to be issued by the District of Columbia, a receipt for a down payment and a vehicle title showing the name of the registered owner to be a person other than Thompson.

The investigation revealed that the District of Columbia temporary tag attached to Thompson’s vehicle, as well as the “Dealer’s Special Certificate” had not been issued by the District of Columbia, and that Thompson could not be identified as the registered owner of the vehicle after a search of the records for the motor vehicle administrations in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Further, the seller of the automobile could not produce records to document the sale of the automobile to Thompson.

Thompson was asked by the insurance company to present herself for a taped statement and did so on Nov. 20, 2003. During the interview she was asked her employment status. She reportedly responded that she was unemployed at the time of taped statement and denied specific questions of whether she was employed as a police officer in Baltimore City.

The investigation revealed that she was in fact employed as a sworn officer of the Baltimore City Police Department and had been since 2001.

The Honorable Kathleen Gallogly Cox scheduled sentencing for July 11, 2005.