Benefits fraud admitted by worker

A North Idaho sawmill worker pleaded guilty last month to collecting more than $16,000 in jobless benefits between 2003 and 2005, even though he was working during the time the checks were issued.

Bruce Conner, 46, of Rathdrum faces up to three years in prison if he fails to repay thousands of dollars in fraudulently secured unemployment insurance benefits, according to a Department of Labor press release.

First District Judge Charles Hosack suspended Conner’s one-to-three year prison sentence on the condition that he comply with all terms of a three-year probation including repayment of the fraudulent benefits plus over $4,100 in penalties, payment of $535 in various criminal justice costs plus the cost of his probation supervision and two days of community service each month for the next 12 months.

The fraud case was developed by Idaho Department of Labor investigators. About $10,000 of the benefit payments and penalties owed by Conner have been recovered through wage garnishment.

“Benefit fraud hurts not just the employer who is initially charged with the payments but all 50,000 employers in the unemployment insurance program because it requires businesses to pay higher taxes to maintain the benefit program,” Compliance Bureau Chief Don Arnold said in a prepared statement.

In the past two fiscal years, 2006 and 2007, Department of Labor investigators have identified more than $7 million in fraudulent benefit claims that carry more than $1 million in penalties. The state will pay about $107 million in unemployment benefits in 2007.