Man sentenced for sex crimes also owes money for workers’ comp fraud

A Bellefontaine man sentenced to eight years in prison for several sex charges and other crimes also owes several thousand dollars for workers’ compensation fraud.

Joseph A. Wilson, 32, was sentenced March 8 on five counts of gross sexual imposition, two counts of workers’ compensation fraud, two counts of failure to appear and single counts of receiving stolen property, theft, breaking and entering and criminal damaging.

According to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Wilson was ordered to pay $2,904 to his employer, Rent-A-Center, and $3,469 to the bureau for the cost of its investigation.

“Workers’ compensation fraud is a crime we take seriously,” said Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Administrator/CEO Stephanie McCloud. “Fraud steals resources needed by workers who are truly injured, and it raises the cost of our entire system.”

The bureau received an anonymous tip in late 2017 that Wilson was working on a horse farm while collecting disability benefits from Rent-A-Center.

The details on the sex crimes case were not immediately available.

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