Tiler pleads guilty to WorkSafe fraud

A tile layer and supervisor from West Brunswick, in Melbourne’s inner north, was fined after pleading guilty to fraudulently obtaining over $9800 in workers compensation payments and to providing false information.

The Broadmeadows Magistrates Court heard that Guiseppe Da Lozza was working as a tile layer in 2006 when he injured his back. His claim for workers compensation was accepted and he formally declared that he was not engaging in any form of employment while receiving weekly compensation payments.

Evidence revealed, however, that while in receipt of compensation payments, Da Lozza was collecting deliveries of tiles as the sole director of Vogue Pty Ltd, a tiling company. Da Lozza pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulently obtaining payments over a period of six months and to one count of providing false information under the Accident Compensation Act 1985.

He was fined $1500 and ordered to repay the $9836 in compensation he obtained fraudulently.

WorkSafe Executive Director Len Boehm said: “We will not support fraudulent behaviour that attempts to take advantage of the system. We will identify and prosecute those who deceive the system, in order to protect honest workers and employers.”