Man faking back injury got $730K in disability — but was caught weightlifting, feds say
UPDATE: George Utley was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after he pleaded guilty to receiving stolen government property. More information can be found here. The original story continues below.
A former postal worker has pleaded guilty after being accused of fraudulently receiving disability payments by saying he had a severe back injury, prosecutors said.
The Oklahoma resident was caught doing “extensive physical activity,” like weightlifting and biking on vacation, despite his supposed injury and income hardships, according to federal officials.
George Utley, 56, faces up to 10 years in prison and is required to pay back $732,459.46 in stolen funds, a Feb. 16 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said.
Utley’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
Utley pleaded guilty to one count of receiving stolen government property, which according to prosecutors, began in 2009 and continued until March 2019.
Utley, who previously worked as a mail handler with the U.S. Postal Service, began receiving disability benefits from the government after reporting a “work-related back injury” in January 2009, prosecutors said.
He netted from $2,600 a month to $3,300 a month from these payments, but Utley was not truthful about his other sources of income or his injuries, feds said.
During a hearing to receive the disability benefits, Utley explicitly said he had not been in any car accident and that he’d only injured his back at work by standing up in the break room, court documents show.
However, prosecutors said an investigation revealed he’d been in nine car accidents, including several that were before his alleged break room back injury. In the aftermath of multiple car accidents, Utley filed civil lawsuits against several different insurance companies. One accident in 1989, documents showed, caused Utley to injure his back.
Additionally, the investigation revealed that, since 2011, Utley only spent $14 on prescription medication, which was in 2012.
“This overall lack of prescription pain medication is inconsistent with the painful disabling medical conditions repeatedly asserted by Utley,” prosecutors said in court documents.
Utley was required to report any other source of income he’d received and any improvement in his physical medical condition, court documents showed. However, he failed to report that he had earned any money or seen improvement in his back since he’d begun receiving disability benefits.
Bank records show that, although he reported no other sources of income, Utley deposited funds from a trash removal company that he appeared to own. Additionally, investigators discovered that Utley owned a property in Pennsylvania, where he was a landlord and received payments from Philadelphia Housing Authority after he began receiving disability benefits, according to court documents.
Facebook posts also show Utley participating in a variety of activities that prosecutors say contradict his claims of a “debilitating, work-related back injury.” These posts include photos of him working out, standing next to a mountain bike, fishing and vacationing in the Grand Canyon. All were posted by Utley, court documents said.
Video surveillance also showed Utley working in his yard for hours at a time, with the former postal worker lifting, carrying and squatting without help, prosecutors said. Additionally, footage showed Utley hauling a race car and crawling underneath it.
A doctor examined Utley in 2018 and deemed he was fit to return to work, prosecutors said. But instead, he entered vocational rehabilitation training and told a specialist he would “never return to work.”
Prosecutors said a search of his emails revealed that Utley had “large sources of income” outside of the money he was receiving monthly from the government.
Due to Utley’s actions of that decade, the United States government lost over $732,000, officials said.
“Had he complied with the mandatory reporting requirements, Utley would not have received these … benefit payments,” court documents said.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Man faking back injury got $730K in disability — but was caught weightlifting, feds say."
