Dodgy tradie caught in undercover WorkSafe sting
WorkSafe scammers have been put on notice after a tradie who claimed he had a back injury was caught on camera doing heavy work, and now has to pay back more than $150,000.
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A dodgy tradie who claimed WorkSafe compensation payments for a back injury for two years while doing kitchen and bathroom renovations has been convicted of fraud.
Jack Berry, 50, was handed a one-year suspended jail term at Frankston Magistrates Court and ordered to pay back more than $150,000 in compensation and legal costs.
Business documents and 70 boxes of unopened medication were found during a search warrant on his Frankston home.
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Berry, who pleaded guilty last month, had been receiving payments for a claimed back injury that he claimed stopped him from working between August 2014 and October 2016.
But WorkSafe investigators set up a sting, filming him as he performed heavy manual work including putting in new kitchens and bathrooms and building retaining walls.
Shane O’Dea, WorkSafe’s insurance business unit executive director, said the workers’ compensation scheme was set up for people with genuine injuries, not to be abused by those who wanted to game the system.
“Those who defraud the system will be held to account,” he said.
Company documents show that shortly after Berry lodged his injury claim he set up several businesses.
He worked under the names JB Home Improvement Team, started in May 2015, Gate Fencing and Metalworks, started in July 2016.
And then a year later he set up a new company United Home Improvement in June 2017.
The WorkSafe investigation found evidence of almost $90,000 worth of work that Berry had invoiced to 15 clients.
The invoices were dated at the same time that Berry was filing compensation payment claims that he could not work because of his back injury.
Berry pleaded guilty to obtaining financial advantage of $91,158.80 by deception.
He was convicted and sentenced to 12 months’ jail but that was suspended for two years.
The back pain drugs seized in the raid on his home were destroyed.
Injured workers are entitled to 95 per cent of their pre-injury earnings in the first 13 weeks of injury.
The payments scales down to 80 per cent of weekly earnings for between 14 weeks and two years’ off work if you are unable to do your job because of injuries sustained at work.