Toledoan must repay $3,762 in fraud case

Disabled man worked while on workers' comp

9/13/2013

A Toledo man caught on camera busting up old homes with a sledgehammer while he was collecting workers' compensation benefits has been ordered to repay the state almost $4,000.

John Perkins, 33, pleaded guilty last week in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to one misdemeanor count of workers-compensation fraud.

State officials said Mr. Perkins had been granted temporary total disability benefits because of a legitimate workplace injury at a former employer. But while he was collecting benefits and supposed to be recuperating, officials were tipped off he was working for Rogers Services demolishing mobile-home trailers.

Investigators filmed Mr. Perkins running a reciprocating saw, using a sledgehammer, loading scrap materials into a Dumpster, and hauling items to scrap yards while employed by John Rogers.

A spokesman with the Bureau of Workers' Compensation said the incidents were filmed between April and July, 2010.

Mr. Perkins was sentenced to 90 days in jail for the fraud and was given credit for 42 days already served. More jail time was suspended for three years of community control. He was ordered to repay $3,762 in restitution to the Bureau of Workers' Compensation.