Truck Driver Ordered to Repay $200,000 After Compensation Fraud

A Victorian truck driver has discovered there are considerably cheaper ways to earn a living than collecting workers’ compensation while simultaneously driving trucks for somebody else.

A 61-year-old truck driver has been ordered to repay more than $200,000 in workers compensation payments after a WorkSafe Victoria investigation found he had returned to work while continuing to declare that he had no capacity to work.

According to information released by WorkSafe Victoria, Brendan Joyce was sentenced in the Wonthaggi Magistrates’ Court on September 22 after previously pleading guilty to three charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

The court ordered Joyce to repay $200,686, convicted him and placed him on a two-year Community Corrections Order, which includes 300 hours of unpaid community work.

And there’s a certain irony in being sentenced to 300 hours of unpaid work after getting yourself into trouble for failing to declare the work you were being paid to do.

The claim

WorkSafe said Joyce began receiving weekly compensation payments in September 2012 after lodging a claim relating to sciatica pain from an injury sustained while working as a transport manager.

He later returned to modified duties between January 2013 and July 2014.

The problem, according to WorkSafe, came later.

Its investigation found Joyce subsequently gained employment as a truck driver with an excavation business from February 2018 until June 2020.

This wasn’t the occasional favour for a mate or moving a truck around the yard.

WorkSafe said he was working up to five days a week, with shifts ranging from around two to 12 hours a day, driving an excavation truck between job sites, quarries and tipping locations.

During the same period, WorkSafe said Joyce continued submitting certificates declaring that he had not worked and had no capacity for work.

He received $200,686 in weekly compensation payments while bank records showed he had also been paid $175,316 from his employment.

That’s where this stopped being a misunderstanding about a form and became a criminal matter.

A friendly word of advice

For anyone thinking this sounds like a clever little supplementary income arrangement, here is some free advice:

Don’t.

Workers’ compensation schemes are designed to support people who are injured and unable to perform their normal work, or whose capacity for work has been reduced.

If your circumstances change and you return to work — whether that is full-time, part-time, modified duties or some other paid employment — hiding it while continuing to declare that you have not worked is not an ingenious financial strategy.

And in an age of payroll systems, taxation records, electronic banking, employment records and increasingly sophisticated data matching, assuming nobody will ever notice is perhaps optimistic. Very optimistic.

WorkSafe: fraud undermines the system

WorkSafe Victoria Acting Executive Director Return to Work Victoria Brendan Rowbotham said the driver repeatedly failed to disclose that he had returned to employment while continuing to receive weekly compensation payments.

WorkSafe described the conduct as fraudulent behaviour that undermines the integrity of Victoria’s workers compensation system.

And that is perhaps the bigger point.

The vast majority of injured workers receiving compensation are not trying to game the system. They’re recovering from genuine injuries, dealing with medical appointments, reduced income and, quite often, considerable uncertainty about whether they will be able to return to the job they once did.

Cases like this make life harder for everyone else.

They create suspicion where there shouldn’t be any, consume investigation resources and provide ammunition for those who already assume every injured worker is somehow swinging the lead.

The expensive way to learn a simple lesson

There is nothing particularly complicated about the lesson here.

If you are receiving workers’ compensation and your employment circumstances change, tell the people administering your claim.

If you’re unsure what you need to declare, ask.

Get advice.

Make the phone call.

Because trying to hide more than two years of employment while continuing to collect compensation has, in this particular case, ended with a criminal conviction, two years under a Community Corrections Order, 300 hours of unpaid work and a bill for more than $200,000.

At 61 years of age, having to find another $200,686 is also the sort of financial setback capable of putting a fairly substantial handbrake on any plans for an early retirement.

That is a very expensive price to pay for avoiding an awkward conversation.

Source: WorkSafe Victoria, “Truck driver to repay $200,000 for compensation fraud”, published September 24, 2026.