Hikers Comp

[edenooch]

WNYT.com
osted at: 02/11/2010 5:52 PM
By: Mark Mulholland


FORT EDWARD - A back injury prevented a Hudson Falls man from working, but not from collecting a paycheck -- or from jumping out of an airplane and hiking mountains.

Jacob Bancroft told his employer that he had a bad back and couldn't work. So he stopped working and collected $88,000 in worker's compensation benefits.

Bancroft walked with a limp Thursday as he was sentenced on charges of falsifying business records. While he was collecting checks for his allegedly ailing back, he was skydiving. Video provided by Mohawk Valley Skydiving shows Bancroft getting ready, then jumping out of a plane and landing with no signs of an injured back.

Investigators found this video and other evidence that Bancroft was hiking in the Adirondacks, running a construction company and even firefighting while he was receiving worker's comp.

The judge sentenced him to five years probation and ordered him to pay back $88,000.

[Rumpled]

I used to know someone who was an investigator for things like that.
She'd shoot video of people doing all kinds of things. Sometimes she'd catch guys with girlfriends that wives didn't know about it.

Sometimes she'd play tennis or something with her subject to get more evidence. Helps that she's cute.

[Bill]

I have had two knee surgeries, and California workers comp has rated me as 17% disabled. They award money based on that percentage, and at some point they may pull me off the job (kicking and screaming) and say I'm not able to perform my job. Are they then going to follow me around with a camera as I hike the hills and sue me for fraud? That is why California and the nation are in the mess we are in.

[simonov]

Are they then going to follow me around with a camera as I hike the hills and sue me for fraud? That is why California and the nation are in the mess we are in.

I believe I can declare with confidence that California is NOT in its current mess because some workman's comp insurance underwriters aggressively pursue fraud cases.

I have three (3) employees and pay over $450 a month for Workman's Comp insurance. I cannot believe some people out there believe I am not paying enough. I am happy to see assholes like the guy in the article taken down. They are criminals pure and simple and it's about time they were treated as such.

Unfortuntely, it is very rare that the DA decides to bring charges against fraud suspects once the insurance underwriter has completed its investigation.