W.Va. Bus Driver Sentenced for Workers’ Comp Fraud

Terry Lee Villers of Wirt County, W.Va. has been sentenced to two felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud according to Insurance Commissioner Jane L. Cline. Villers was sentenced Dec. 16 in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County to two terms of one year probation to run consecutively and ordered to pay restitution in the amount if $11,726.04.

Villers pleaded guilty in Kanawha County Circuit Court Oct. 11, 2005 to knowingly securing benefits to which he was not entitled and to making a false statement under oath. Both charges stem from Villers’ claim in September 2004 that he was injured while working as a school bus driver for the Wirt County Board of Education.

“Villers filed a report indicating that he suffered a work-related knee injury upon exiting a bus at the Board’s bus garage parking lot in Elizabeth,” Cline said. “An anonymous phone call to the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Hotline prompted an investigation, and evidence was found that Villers actually was injured when he jumped off a dozer while working in his private contracting business.”

Medical expenses and disability benefits of nearly twelve-thousand dollars were paid by the Workers’ Compensation Commission in the claim.