Truck driver slugged $85,000 for compensation fraud

Simon Stott, 57, was sentenced in the Echuca Magistrates' Court on Wednesday 24 April after pleading guilty to one charge of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.

Stott was also ordered to pay costs of $2000.

The court heard Stott was working as an interstate truck driver when he was seriously injured in a crash in 2014 and began receiving weekly workers compensation payments.

The fraud was uncovered in December 2018 after Stott posted on social media about a new role as an interstate driver.

An investigation found Stott had earned about $55,000 as a truck driver for five different transport companies between February 2017 and August 2018 while continuing to tell his GP, insurer and an independent medical examiner that he had not returned to work.

Return to Work Victoria Executive Director Jason Lardelli said there was no excuse for this level of dishonesty.

"Our workers compensation scheme is there to help those who genuinely need it to support their recovery and return to work," Mr Lardelli said.

"The Victorian public expects us to safeguard these funds and those who actively seek to defraud the system by using it for personal gain will be held to account."