If there’s only one thing to take away from Fraud of the Day blogs, it’s that criminals usually get caught in the end. (But fraudsters usually don’t think about the consequences of their actions until it’s too late.) People like Thomas Tomson of Newark, Ohio learned this lesson the hard way.
The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) opened an investigation upon receiving intelligence that suggested Thomson owned and operated a business called Bulldog Services while receiving permanent disability benefits. (It sounds like he wasn’t permanently disabled after all.)
Bulldog Services was eventually sold and renamed Kirk’s Business. Tomson continued to work at Kirk’s Business. Bulldog Services and Kirk’s Business provided the exact same services as T.H.E. Contracting, which was the company Tomson listed as his employer of record on his workers compensation claims. (This fraudster probably thought he could hide behind multiple entities and throw investigators off his trail.)
Investigators were not fazed by Tomson and after a three-day trial, Tomson was found guilty of two felony counts of worker’s compensation fraud. On April 11, he was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the BWC. (Let’s hope this fraudster learned his lesson: there is no benefit to committing fraud.)
Today’s Fraud of the Day comes from the NBC 4 article, “Licking County man sentenced, ordered to pay $100,000 for workers’ compensation fraud,” published on April 22, 2022.
NEWARK – A Licking County man was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $100,000 restitution fine to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation after owning and operating a business while receiving disability benefits.
Thomas Tomson was sentenced to two years probation on April 11 after a jury found him guilty of two felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud for receiving income from his business Bulldog Services while earning permanent disability benefits, according to a news release from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.
