EASTERN NEWS ZONE......

An Ulster County, New York man who admitted that he illegally accepted workers' compensation benefits was ordered to make $77,800 in restitution and serve a 30-day jail sentence.

Judge Frank Milano sentenced Joseph A. Gambino, 58, of Saugerties, after accepting his guilty plea to charges of insurance fraud and workers' comp fraud. He was also sentenced to serve five years' probation.

Gambino was arrested Dec. 3 following an investigation by Joseph Kochetta of the New York State Insurance Department's Frauds Bureau, the New York State Insurance Fund and the Workers' Compensation Board Inspector General's Office.

Investigators reportedly videotaped Gambino engaged in such activities as moving furniture and riding a motorcycle without the cane he appeared to lean on heavily during medical exams. He had collected workers' comp benefits from the Insurance Fund for more than three years after claiming he had suffered a job-related back injury in 2003.

• New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Deborah Gramiccioni announced that a Passaic County man pleaded guilty to charges that he fraudulently used his father’s insurance plan to obtain prescription pain medications.
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• According to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza Dagli, David Van Dunk, Jr., 35, of Hewitt, pleaded guilty in Passaic County to third-degree theft by deception. The charges were contained in an Oct. 7, 2008 Passaic County grand jury indictment.
  
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• The state will recommend that Van Dunk be sentenced to three years of probation conditioned on him either serving 364 days in the county jail or successfully completing a drug treatment program of at least 18 months.
  
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• In pleading guilty, Van Dunk admitted that between Jan. 24 and Nov. 8, 2006, he falsely used his father’s prescription plan to wrongfully obtain prescription medications, including oxycodone, Percocet, morphine sulfate, and Endocet. Van Dunk claimed that the medications were for his father when, in fact, they were for himself.
  
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• As a result of the fraud, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company paid various pharmacies a total of $12,140 for the prescription medications.