WIRT MAN PLEADS GUILTY OVER WORKER'S COMP CLAIM

(10/14/2005)
A Wirt County man, Terry Lee Villers, has pleaded guilty to two felony counts of workers' compensation fraud, according to the West Virginia Insurance Commission.

Villers admitted in Kanawha County Circuit Court to knowingly securing benefits to which he was not entitled and to making a false statement under oath, according to insurance Commissioner Jane L. Cline.

Villers had filed a claim in September 2004 that he was injured while working as a 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."

"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," said investigators.

Villers received medical expenses and disability benefits of about $12,000.

Sentencing will be Dec. 16 in Kanawha County.

Villers is facing 10 years for making the false claim, three years for making a false report.