Ex-police officer charged with auto fraud By Mark E. Vogler , Staff Writer
Eagle-Tribune
LAWRENCE - A former Lawrence police officer who quit the force more than a decade ago is the latest to be caught in the city's ongoing crackdown on auto insurance fraud.
Police say Sean Dugan concocted a phony accident story so he could get his insurance company to pay for repairing the damage his car received in a hit-and-run crash he was responsible for last month.
But some sophisticated police work and a debris field of car parts investigators found near a smashed-up 2001 Ford pickup truck on Mount Vernon Street that fell off Dugan's 1999 Saturn SC1 coupe kept him from getting away with the scam, according to investigators.
Dugan, 46, of 2 Mount Auburn St., was charged with auto insurance fraud, attempted larceny, leaving the scene of property damage, failing to file an accident report and improperly registered motor vehicle.
The arrest of the one-time policeman brings the number of people charged so far to 195 since the task force began its crackdown on auto insurance fraud in the fall of 2003. "This is your textbook police investigation, from the patrol officer right through the end - and it didn't involve just the auto fraud unit," Lawrence police Chief John Romero said.
"You had the insurance company, the insurance fraud investigators, the governor's Auto Theft Task Force, state police, detectives all involved in this one. And it started with a patrol officer," Romero said.
The investigation started when Officer Alan Laird responded to a hit-and-run crash early Sept. 18 on Mount Vernon Street involving a large pickup truck owned by Saint Mary's Immaculate Conception Cemetery. An unidentified vehicle pushed the truck up over a curb and about 4 feet onto the lawn and into a telephone pole. Detective Carl Farrington was assigned to investigate the crash. While sifting through the debris of car parts left behind, he noticed a high theft label attached to what appeared to be a right front bumper.
The high theft label also had a Saturn logo on it and it was next to a metal bracket with the vehicle identification numbers inscribed. This enabled the detective to track down the hit-and-run vehicle.
Farrington linked the car parts to Dugan's Saturn. When he went to inspect the car, the detective said he noticed a large part of the right fender missing and extensive damage that appeared to match up to points of probable impact with the pickup truck.
About three days later, Dugan filed a claim with OneBeacon Insurance Group, stating that he was taking the Route 133 exit ramp off Route 93 North when he hit a puddle that made him lose control and smash into a guard rail.
Farrington said that he could find no such damage in the area where Dugan claimed the accident took place. He checked with state police, who didn't receive any reports of a crash there either.
OneBeacon was suspicious of the $3,736 claim Dugan filed and denied it, suspecting possible fraud.
"He (Dugan) didn't count on the thorough investigation being conducted by the Lawrence Police Department and all the other agencies that were involved," Romero said.
"Here's a case of a somebody leaving the scene after damaging somebody else's vehicle and then fabricating a story to cover the damage of their own car and trying to avoid responsibility for a hit-and-run accident of their making," the chief said.
Dugan quit the police force in June 1991 when he received a 90-day jail sentence for drunken driving - his second such offense.
Haverhill police arrested him after they say he slammed his 1986 Mercury Marquis into the back of another car on the Ward Hill Connector.
In September 1989, he received a 30-day suspension after he got out of his car on Jackson Street, drew his gun and put three men up against a wall while he was intoxicated.
Posted by: SOT
Nice but finding the VIN at the scene of the crime sort of makes it a no brainer.
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