A Peel Region police officer who won a lottery while awaiting trial on fraud charges was sentenced Monday to 5 years in prison.

Const. Carlton Watson, 50, was convicted in February on 42 charges of fraud, breach of trust and obstructing justice for his involvement in an accident scam that swindled more than $1 million from insurance companies.

According to testimony heard at trial, the 23-year veteran of the force was paid in cash by a tow-truck driver to provide nine bogus accident reports which passed off staged car crashes as legitimate ones in 2010.

In most cases, Watson prepared the accident reports without attending the scene and didn’t speak to any of the drivers or passengers claiming to be involved in the crashes.

Throughout the case, the defence claimed that Watson was never paid for preparing the reports and was doing it merely as a favour to friends while under the impression that the crashes were real. However, the presiding judge ruled that the testimony made no sense and that his police notes on the staged crashes were “clearly deceptive.”

“I can find no innocent explanation for making deceptive police notes; recording a very short gap between accident time and report time and failing to enter tickets in the court system,” said Justice John Sproat. “They are, however, logically explained if Const. Watson is party to the fraud.”

In determining the sentence, Sproat considered that Watson’s wife needed medical care and was largely dependent on her husband. He also noted that Watson did not have any savings and had to sell his house to cover expenses, despite winning a $275,000 Reno Jackpot in 2012 and collecting a total of $500,000 in pay over the last four years.

However, it is difficult to imagine a more serious breach of trust given that he is a police officer, Sproat said.

Watson had been suspended with pay since his arrest in the spring of 2011 after an investigation from the Internal Affairs Bureau. After Monday’s sentencing, Peel Police chief Jennifer Evans said his status had changed to suspended without pay, and that she would seek his removal from the force.

With files from Louie Rosella

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