North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Experts Abuzz about Albany Felony Charge
A relatively small felony case is turning the heads of top North Carolina workers’ compensation specialists. According to news sources, a 48-year old man named Richard Scepkowski pled guilty to felony workers’ compensation fraud after being caught working at an auto repair center. Scepkowski worked for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at Albany’s airport before claiming injury around July 4, 2004. He filed workers’ comp paperwork with the Department of Labor and collected a payout of nearly $20,000 from September 2004 through August last year. This amount is (relatively) minor as far as workers’ comp fraud cases are concerned. But since Scepkowski pled guilty to making false statements, he now faces an array of strict penalties.
How This Small Case Relates Back to North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Concerns
1. It illustrates how persistent the government can be in terms of rooting out fraud and punishing offenders.
Scepkowski got away with collecting federal workers’ comp for more than five years before getting caught. This shows that people who attempt to defraud the North Carolina workers’ compensation system will always be at risk for getting caught and facing severe financial penalties and potentially other punishments, such as jail time.
2. Even small instances of workers’ comp fraud will be taken very seriously.
A felony conviction can result in jail time and the permanent loss of certain privileges, such as the right to vote in elections.
3. The case shows how important it is to file your workers’ compensation paperwork carefully.
In this case, a claimant willfully deceived the DOL in his paperwork. Nevertheless, even otherwise well-intentioned claimants who make mistakes in their applications can get in big trouble – or at the very least lose hard-won benefits.
If you have any questions about the North Carolina workers’ compensation process or about your paperwork, connect ASAP with a reputable and experienced NC workers’ comp attorney to learn more about your rights and responsibilities under state and federal law.
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