Volunteer Firefighter's Workers' Comp Fraud Case Dismissed

Monday, February 22, 2016 | 0

A court has discharged a criminal case against a Wendelville man accused of workers’ comp fraud because he’d been going out on fire calls and serving coffee to firefighters while collecting disability benefits for an injury he sustained working as a truck driver, according to the Buffalo News newspaper.

Claimant is accused of going out on fire calls while collecting disability benefits.

Niagara County Judge Matthew Murphy ordered that the case be discharged, in part because the life he’d led so far “has been blameless.”

James J. Moreland injured his neck while driving a truck for a local blacktop company in September 2008. He had two spinal fusions after the incident and had been off work on disability since.

While out on workers’ compensation disability, Moreland went on fire calls with the Wendelville Volunteer Fire Company between 2009 and 2011 and passed a fire company physical in 2010 that included performing jumping jacks and donning firefighting gear.

But in September 2012, his benefits were terminated by the Workers’ Compensation Board. The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court upheld the cessation of benefits in March 2014.

Last December, he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of attempted fraudulent insurance practices for submitting a workers’ comp form on which he’d stated he was not doing any volunteer work. Moreland claims he had a doctor’s authorization for the volunteer work and mistakenly checked a “No” box on the form.

Prosecutors wanted Moreland to pay $45,000 in restitution, but the judge declined to order him to pay anything.