Ex-cop Carlos Becker faces 20 years in auto fraud scheme

An ex-cop from Hempstead faces up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy after pleading guilty on Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court to allegations of participating in a scheme to fraudulently collect insurance on a Range Rover he arranged to have torched.

“I agreed with others to file a false insurance claim,” said Carlos Becker, 40, a 13-year NYPD veteran who was terminated from his job last month. “… I knew it was wrong.”

Federal sentencing guidelines call for Becker to spend between 37 to 46 months in prison. He also agreed under a plea deal to pay $34,261 in restitution. He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie on April 28.

Becker was accused of falsely reporting to Nassau County police in 2012 that his vehicle was missing after arranging to have it burned, and then seeking compensation from his insurer, Geico.

Prosecutors said he didn’t pay one of the men he had hired to destroy the car for the arson job, and that co-conspirator later disclosed the scheme to law enforcement and recorded an incriminating conversation with Becker.

Becker was held without bail after prosecutors said he also had assaulted two women, including one case in which he allegedly took suggestive pictures of a woman he arrested for drunken driving, pressured her into a date and took her home and assaulted her after she became groggy.

A civil suit is pending against Becker in Manhattan federal court over that incident.