Sgt. Hillary Tagabuel, Serafin Amog Esperancilla and Lili Cepeda were arrested about a couple of weeks ago following the issuance of a sealed warrant of arrest.
Department of Public Safety Commissioner Clyde K. Norita Norita said an internal undercover investigation conducted resulted to the identification of 41 fraudulent reports.
Norita said investigation showed that police officer Sgt. Hillary Tagabuel initiated all the traffic complaints.
He added that there could be more police officers involved in the scam.
Also involved were an auto repair shop in Garapan and three insurance companies, Norita said.
“There could be more auto repair shops involved,” he said. He added that the auto repair shop owner and the insurance companies were very cooperative in helping DPS with the investigation.
“In this scenario, the reporting agency is DPS and when there is somebody inside DPS who can fabricate a police report, you don’t need other people to create an accident,” Norita said.
He added that the suspects would collect money from the insurance company by filing the fraudulent reports.
“My feeling is that there are more police officers involved in this, and we’re going to go after them,” Norita said.
Officer-on-case Detective Patrick Earl Maanao said the 41 fraudulent traffic crash reports received claims from insurance companies.
The average payout for the claims ranged from $8,000 to $25,000 per report.
Maanao said Tagabuel received $150-$200 per report.
“We believe the issuance of fraudulent reports started in August last year and we sensed something was amiss when almost all of the accidents in the reports were head-on collisions,” Maanao said. He added that the traffic crash reports showed that one particular vehicle was involved in 13 accidents in a span of less than one year.
Tagabuel was assigned at the commissioner’s office under the logistics and vehicle maintenance section.
