Woman Ordered to Pay Restitution for Spending Dead Boyfriend's Benefit Funds

Monday, October 23, 2017 | 0

The boyfriend died, but the workers’ comp checks kept coming.

Because 58-year-old Suzette Hedrick of Toledo, Ohio, cashed the checks, she has a choice of reimbursing the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation $18,576 or serve 10 months in prison, the BWC said in a press release Friday. A Lucas County judge on Oct. 5 sentenced Hendrik to five years of probation after she pleaded guilty to attempted grand theft, a fifth-degree felony, the bureau said.

Hendrick’s boyfriend, whom the bureau did not identify, was receiving permanent total disability benefits until his death on Oct. 3, 2015, the BWC said. A claims specialist learned that he had died, but someone was still withdrawing his benefit payments using a debit card issued by the bureau.

The BWC stopped making the payments after learning of the boyfriend’s death and confronted Hendrick. She admitted that she had been using her late boyfriend’s debit card to pay bills and accepted responsibility, the bureau said.

“We understand the financial hardship some people experience following the loss of a loved one, but that doesn't diminish the seriousness of this crime,” stated Jim Wernecke, director of the bureau’s Special Investigations Department.

In the same press release, the bureau provided a breakdown of other fraud cases prosecuted in the past two months:

• Elizabeth Brown, of Groveport, pleaded guilty Oct. 12 to one misdemeanor count of workers' compensation fraud after investigators discovered she was working while receiving BWC benefits. Brown had worked in customer service for four separate companies from September 2015 to January 2016 while receiving temporary disability benefits. She reimbursed the BWC $3,905.
• Timothy Snedeker, of Newark, was found guilty Oct. 3 of three misdemeanor counts of lapsed coverage for failing to carry workers' compensation coverage on his business, Tim's Tree Service. A Newark Municipal Court judge sentenced Snedeker to one year in prison but suspended incarceration and imposed 90 days' probation. Snedeker reimbursed BWC, and his business is now in compliance, the bureau said.
• Theodore Skwarski, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty Sept. 6 to unauthorized use of property/computer system, a second-degree misdemeanor. BWC investigators learned he was operating Ted's Auto Service without proper work comp coverage. A judge sentenced Skwarski to 90 days in jail but suspended incarceration, and ordered Skwarski to one year of community control and 20 hours of community service to be completed within the next six months. The BWC said Skwarski told investigators he was no longer operating his business, but that wasn’t the case. He entered a payment plan and is currently operating with coverage.
• Michael Humble, of London, Ohio, pleaded guilty Sept. 6 to a first-degree misdemeanor count of workers' compensation fraud after BWC found him working while receiving permanent total disability benefits. He was sentenced to one day of jail, which was suspended for the payment of $3,834 in restitution.