Former Police Officer Pleads No Contest in $50,000 WC Fraud

Tuesday, October 27, 2015 | 0

A former police officer accused of collecting more than $50,000 in a workers' compensation fraud has received a suspended prison sentence after pleading no contest to two charges of larceny.

David McElroy, who resigned from the New London, Connecticut, police force just ahead of his arrest for fraud, also agreed to pay $25,000 in restitution.

The 55-year-old, of Colchester, received the suspended sentence with three years of conditional discharge during an appearance in New Haven Superior Court, The Day, a New London newspaper, reported.

McElroy was charged a year ago following an investigation by the Chief State Attorney's Office. He was accused of collecting the money for an injury suffered in September 2013.

He was out of work between October 2013 and March 2014, during which time he collected more than $50,000. Surveillance carried out by the city's insurance carrier showed McElroy doing carpentry at his home numerous times, according to the complaint.

The case was complicated as McElroy, a former vice president of the police union, was fired in December 2013 after he was accused of leaking information on a rape case and then lying about it.

Following a legal challenge by his union, he was rehired in March 2014 but resigned before his arrest for the fraud.

His lawyer, Daniel A. Esposito, told The Day that after nearly a year of negotiations McElroy entered the pleas to the misdemeanor counts as part of an agreement to "spare his family the stress, delay, and uncertainty associated with a trial."

Esposito said his client did not admit guilt nor concede the facts alleged were true. He pleaded no contest to two counts of fourth-degree larceny.