The HR Daily Advisor® is celebrating its 10-year anniversary! In honor of this special occasion, we’re rehashing the most popular HR Strange But True!
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You’re No Pelé; Get Back to Work!
When will people learn that fake workers’ compensation claims will ultimately lead to lawsuits? Hopefully never, because then we won’t have HRSBT! This recent case is no different, but it’s still entertaining!
A man in California filed a claim for workers’ comp for an injury he claims happened while he was at work (go figure!). In true workers’ comp fraud fashion, the man’s injury was not sustained on the job but, in fact, was from a soccer match 2 days before he claimed he was injured.
The man said he was injured when a lawn mower hit his leg, resulting in a spiral fracture of the left tibia. The man had to undergo surgery and have a nail inserted into his leg to help the bone heal. Who would have thought that a lawn mower could do such damage? He must have hit that thing pretty hard to break his tibia!
Well, that’s exactly what the Sacramento County district attorney’s (DA) office thought, too, and decided to investigate his claim! What they discovered was that the man actually broke his tibia during a soccer match, 2 days before he claimed he was injured. The DA’s office also found that the man had applied for—and received—$1,000 from the soccer league, from which the injury occurred. He then lied to his doctors and his employer’s insurance company as to how, where, and when his injury happened.
The man was ultimately busted and sentenced to 120 days in county jail, 5 years of probation, and ordered to pay back $36,404.34 in restitution. The moral of this story … workers’ comp fraud doesn’t pay! But it definitely makes for some great HRSBT stories!