By Khalida Sarwari
A 57-year-old San Jose man will serve 90 days in jail for contracting without a license and embezzling $68,000 from workers, Santa Clara County prosecutors said.
Sergio Gayton Gonzales, Sr. pleaded guilty in October to two felony charges, including workers’ compensation insurance premium fraud and unlawful use of a contractor’s license without permission.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years of probation. He has paid $48,000 of the $68,000 he owed to the State Compensation Board and is expected to pay the remainder of the sum, the district attorney’s office said.
An investigation by the district attorney’s office found that Gonzales lied to a licensed contractor about being a licensed subcontractor with workers’ compensation insurance to get hired.
He then went on to take $68,000 in workers’ compensation insurance premium that should have been paid over the course of a construction contract to workers on the project, the district attorney’s office said.
Such schemes put workers at risk of having insufficient or no insurance coverage if they are injured on the job and illegally lowers operating costs for dishonest businesses, giving them a competitive advantage over law-abiding businesses, the district attorney’s office said.
