BRIEF: Lodi Unified maintenance worker pleads no contest to disability fraud [The Record, Stockton, Calif.]

March 09--LODI -- A Lodi Unified School District maintenance worker has been convicted of workers' compensation fraud and has been sentenced to three years probation.

<p>Enrique Argumedo, a plumber, pleaded no contest in San Joaquin County Superior Court on Friday to charges that he received disability insurance payments but took independent plumbing jobs at the same time.

Investigator Dalene Bartholomew of Probe Information Services said Argumedo was caught on surveillance tape going to homes with his toolbox.

At first he denied the fraud allegations but later took the plea deal offered by the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office.

The plumber will have to pay back $3,893 in insurance payments and resign from Lodi Unified, Bartholomew said.

"Lodi Unified is self-insured, so these are tax dollars," she said.

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