Former San Mateo County Employee Gets Jail Time for Workers Comp Scheme

By Bay City News Service:

A former San Mateo County employee who collected workers compensation benefits for a disabling back injury while working at multiple businesses she owned was sentenced to 120 days in jail Friday, according to prosecutors.

Sunita Sagar, 46, was also given three years of probation and ordered to pay $54,773 in restitution, according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaff.

Sagar, a Fremont resident, pleaded no contest in February to a count of workers compensation fraud, after a video taken by investigators showed her working at businesses she owned and walking and bending without any signs of disability, according to Wagstaffe.

At the time, she was out of work on full disability, receiving workers compensation benefits and had requested home care to assist her, prosecutors said.

Sagar remained out of jail during the case on $50,000 bail. Wagstaffe said Judge Craig Parsons recommended that her sentence be served in home confinement, after her attorney argued that her back injury had grown worse since the time of her arrest.

Prosecutors objected to the recommendation due to Sagar’s fraudulent history, Wagstaffe said.

(Image via Shutterstock)