Ex-Cop Gets 3-Year Suspended Sentence for Workers' Comp Fraud

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 | 0

A former police officer who defrauded the Connecticut workers' compensation system of about $34,000 will serve a three-year suspended prison sentence, The Record-Journal reports. 

Leighton "Buddy" Gibbs injured his right knee one night in March 2011 while drunkenly wrestling a man, according to the results of a police internal affairs investigation. The next day, he told the Meriden Police Department that he had hurt his knee in the parking lot that morning, his arrest warrant said. 

He collected $34,058 in workers' compensation benefits between March and October 2011. The Police Department's internal affairs division opened an investigation of the claim while he was still receiving benefits. Connecticut's workers' compensation fraud unit received the complaint in 2014.

Gibbs must pay the city $4,000 upfront and $500 per month thereafter until all the money is repaid, a city official said. Gibbs was also sentenced to five years of probation.

Gibbs worked for the Police Department for 12 years. 

Read the full story on the Record-Journal's website here.