Columbus, OH – A Florida man who had been collecting injured workers’ benefits from Ohio since 2011 pleaded guilty to workers’ compensation fraud recently after investigators with the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation found him working as a carpet cleaner in Florida.
Jarrod B. Lewis, 40, of Palm Bay, Florida, must pay $5,300 in restitution to BWC and serve five years probation in lieu of a 12-month prison sentence for committing the fifth-degree felony, a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge ruled Nov. 28.
Lewis, formerly of Chillicothe, Ohio, was working as a youth specialist for the Ohio Department of Youth Services when he was injured on the job in 2011. BWC’s Special Investigations Department started looking at Lewis in October 2013 after getting an anonymous tip that he was living and working in Florida. Agents determined Lewis returned to full-time work in April 2013 but intentionally withheld this information from BWC to receive benefits for which he was not entitled.
Source: Ohio BWC