A Roselle, N.J., man has been criminally charged with filing a fraudulent insurance claim for repairs on a luxury vehicle he wrecked while intoxicated earlier this year, acting Union County Prosecutor Lyndsay V. Ruotolo and Roselle Police Chief Brian Barnes announced.
Brian Bullock, 31, is charged with second-degree insurance fraud, second- and third-degree falsifying government documents, and third-degree tampering with public records or information.
This comes after members of the Roselle Police Department responded at 12:38 a.m. on June 20 to find that Bullock had struck a parked vehicle with his car, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Henn, who is prosecuting the case. Bullock was subsequently charged with driving while intoxicated and other traffic violations, and then released on his own recognizance.
An investigation led by Roselle Police Detective Terrell McGriff and Sgt. Michael Manochio of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Prosecutions Unit revealed that a little more than seven hours after the accident, Bullock contacted Progressive Insurance to obtain an insurance policy for the 2013 Audi S5 that had just been heavily damaged earlier that day.
The day after the accident, Bullock allegedly filed an accident claim on his new policy for the $23,586 repair bill, documenting that the collision had taken place at 12:38 p.m. on June 20, not 12:38 a.m. Bullock allegedly repeated that assertion multiple times during the application process, and after obtaining a copy of the official accident report several days later, he also allegedly digitally altered and falsified the time stamp and then submitted it to Progressive to back his claim.
Bullock was served the criminal charges at his home on Thursday, after which he was released on his own recognizance pending a first appearance scheduled to take place in Union County Superior Court.
Convictions on second-degree criminal offenses in New Jersey are commonly punishable by five to 10 years in state prison. These criminal charges are mere accusations. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Source: Union County Prosecutor’s Office
Topics Fraud New Jersey
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