The Attorney General’s office announced on Friday that John Toyias, age 45, of Waltham, MA was charged with 55 counts of Unemployment Fraud, two counts of Motor Vehicle Insurance Fraud, two counts of Larceny over $250 and Attempted Larceny.
Attorney General Coakley said that, “Insurance and unemployment fraud are serious crimes that lead to a drain on our unemployment premiums and higher insurance premiums for consumers. Our office will continue to investigate and prosecute these cases to protect our taxpayers.” Coakley went on to say that, “we allege that the defendant [Mr. Toyias] made fraudulent insurance claims on multiple occasions and unlawfully collected unemployment benefits.”
Mr. Toyias is the president and owner of Jayco Landscaping Company in Waltham, a waste removal and dumping company for cities and towns in the Commonwealth. According to the Attorney General’s office, authorities believe that Mr. Toyias filed multiple fraudulent insurance claims for property damage to a methane pipe owned by the town of Canton. In 2006 and 2007, Mr. Toyias had employees file two separate reports to their respective insurers Arbella and Premier for approximately $20,000 resulting from the alleged damages and emergency repairs done to the same methane pipe when the employees backed over it with their car.
The AG’s office also says that in a separate scheme, on two separate occasions Mr. Toyias applied for unemployment benefits from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce where he received unemployment benefits for 55 weeks while failing to disclose his continued status as president and owner of Jayco.
Mr. Toyias was indicted by a Suffolk County Grand Jury on Thursday of last week and is scheduled to be arraigned on February 15, 2011 in Suffolk Superior Court.
