Columbus, OH – A judge on June 28 ordered a Zanesville-area truck driver to pay $78,321 in restitution to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) after investigators found the driver had gone back to work without telling BWC so he could continue to collect disability benefits.
The Franklin County judge also sentenced Walter Lee, 54, of Frazeysburg to five years of probation and a 14-day suspended jail term. Lee pleaded guilty on April 24 to a fifth-degree felony count of workers’ compensation fraud.
“Our investigators discovered through state records that Mr. Lee had returned to work as a truck driver on May 3, 2013, but he deliberately concealed that information from BWC,” said Jim Wernecke, director of BWC’s special investigations department.
Source: Ohio BWC