A Baldwin man was sentenced to prison Tuesday in an insurance fraud scheme stemming from the 2012 torching of a luxury car in Queens, prosecutors said.
Nassau District Judge Martin Massell sentenced Henry Flores, 28, to 11/2 to 3 years after he pleaded guilty in March to felony fourth-degree insurance fraud, according to the Nassau County district attorney’s office.
The FDNY was called to the scene of a burning 2009 Range Rover on Sept. 12, 2012, which fire marshals determined was arson, prosecutors said in a news release.
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Five days later, the owner, a Queens resident, “filed a fraudulent police report” with Nassau police and a fraudulent claim with his insurance company, claiming “his vehicle had been stolen from in front of a friend’s house in North Bellmore” on Sept. 16, prosecutors said. “As part of the insurance claim, the owner sought to be paid at least $38,000 — the total loss value of the vehicle.”
A subsequent investigation determined “the owner had given the vehicle to Flores and paid him $2,000 to damage and dispose of the vehicle so that the owner could file a bogus insurance claim,” the office of District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. “As part of that investigation, the FDNY obtained an audio recording of Flores admitting that he had given the vehicle to a third person for the purpose of having it torched in Queens.”
Shortly after Flores’ arrest in October 2012, “the owner died of natural causes in a Brooklyn hospital,” prosecutors said. “The third person involved in the scheme was not identified.”
