Via Insurance Journal (Dec. 21), the story of William Fennelly, now sentenced to seven months in jail for perjury committed in support of a fraudulent workers’ compensation claim.
Fennelly claimed to have been totally incapacitated by an on the job back injury, and was collecting benefits from Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company [MEMIC]. At the same time that he maintained he was unable to work, Fennelly was busily toiling away and collecting wages from several employers as a lobsterman.
As investigators trawled deeper, the truth got murkier. Not only was Fennelly commercial fishing while collecting workers’ compensation, he was also employed at the Town of Lamoine Transfer Station and earned wages as a sternman aboard another boat — none of which he report to MEMIC, which he was obligated to do by Maine law.
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Under oath, he repeatedly denied working. When confronted with Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound records, he said he didn’t make ‘one penny’ and declared he only drove the boat to train an apprentice. He then testified there was no way to prove earnings because he did not have a bank account due to back child support that he owed.
When a subpoena turned up two bank accounts, one with deposited checks from the lobster pound, a new story of fronting the apprentice with workers’ comp money for bait unfolded. But Fennelly had no answer as to why he deposited a Trenton Bridge check, a MEMIC check and a Town of Lamoine check all on the same day. And evidence to confirm the apprenticeship story never materialized.
Note that Fennelly was witholding support payments at the same time he lied to the insurer. An all around upstanding citizen and now a guest of the State, tangled in the net of his own deceptions.
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