A Victorian truck driver has been ordered to return more than $200,000 he took from the state’s workers’ compensation scheme while working. 

Brendan Joyce started getting weekly compensation payments in September 2012 for sciatica pain caused by an injury while working as a transport manager. 

He returned to modified duties with the same employer between January 2013 and July 2014 and did not disclose a return to work after this date. 

An investigation by WorkSafe Victoria later found he became a truck driver with an excavation business from February 2018 until June 2020, working up to five days per week from two to 12 hours daily. 

He continued to submit certificates declaring he had not worked and had no capacity to work, and received $200,686 in weekly compensation payments over that period. 

WorkSafe Victoria says bank records revealed Joyce received $175,316 from his truck driving job and was at the same time getting his compensation money. 

Joyce was sentenced in the Wonthaggi Magistrates Court on Tuesday after earlier pleading guilty to three charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception. The 61-year-old was also placed on a two-year Community Corrections Order with a condition to complete 300 hours of unpaid community work. 

WorkSafe Victoria’s Brendan Rowbotham says the driver's “fraudulent behaviour is completely unacceptable and a criminal offence which undermines the integrity of our workers' compensation scheme.

"Over more than two years, this worker deceived the system by completing dishonest declarations that he had not worked while receiving compensation payments.”