Some business owners in California have experienced situations in which they suffered the financial consequences of fraudulent workers compensation claims. Employee fraud is prevalent, and, to protect themselves, employers need to know what to look out for when injury claims are assessed. A man in another state was recently sentenced in a common pleas court for defrauding the insurance system.
Court documents indicated that the man received workers’ compensation benefits after he suffered an injury that allegedly caused him to be permanently disabled. However, investigators determined that the man was driving trucks for a logistics company under a business name as an independent contract driver. All the while he was apparently also receiving monthly workers’ compensation benefits for permanent total disability.
The sentence included placement on community control with basic supervision for a period of five years. As part of the terms of the community control, the man was also ordered to pay over $10,000 of which $2,000 is for costs related to the investigation and over $8,000 for restitution. Furthermore, he may not have any new convictions, and violation of the community control terms will lead to a 12-month prison term.
This worker’s claim for permanent total disability would have had a severe impact on the insurance premiums of the business in whose employ the man was when he claimed to have suffered the injury. Experienced workers compensation attorneys can help to educate California business owners about how to identify fraudulent claims. A lawyer can also fight on behalf of an employer in cases of employee fraud in which legal action is required to resolve the issue.
Source: workcompwire.com, “Ohio Man Who Claimed Permanent Disability Sentenced for Fraud“, Jan. 27, 2016
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