OFF BEAT: Slip catches man in 20-year fraud scheme

A Cincinnati man pleaded guilty last week to scamming the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for more than $100,000 in ill-gotten benefits.

Using an alias and fake Ohio driver’s license, John Monday worked as a janitor for the Cincinnati Spine Institute for more than 20 years while collecting permanent total disability and disabled workers relief fund benefits from the state, according to a statement from the OBWC released on Friday.

The bureau’s Special Investigation Department opened an investigation this year after Mr. Monday mistakenly revealed his true identity to a physician who had been treating him for back pain after-hours.

Mr. Monday pleaded guilty in a Franklin County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 5 to one count of felony workers compensation fraud. He was placed on five years’ probation and ordered to pay restitution to the OBWC in the amount of $105,169, plus an additional $3,692 for the cost of the state’s investigation.