Palm Bay man accused of stealing dead person's worker's compensation checks

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — State investigators said worker’s compensation checks for a Brevard County man were still being cashed months after his death.

And the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud believes more than one person was responsible for a roughly $20,000 theft.

The suspect, Harry Collins, denied any involvement in the case when Channel 9 reporter Mel Holt spoke to him as he left the county jail.

“I’m clueless about everything,” Harry Collins, 48, said.

He’s facing a charge of organized fraud in connection to the alleged theft of worker’s compensation checks for a Melbourne man who died in January 2015.

According to state investigators, Paul Anders received the checks for an injury he suffered on the job until his death in 2015.

But the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud said someone kept cashing those checks, which were being mailed to the decedent’s Van Buren Street home.

The last check was cashed on Oct. 9, 2015.

The total loss was $20,000.

“I don’t cash checks. How can I cash checks if it’s not in my name?” said Collins.

He did acknowledge knowing a co-defendant in the case Tammy Lynn Esquivel, 39, but he said he hadn’t had contact with her for months.

He denied any allegations that he conspired with her or anyone else to collect unearned worker’s compensation benefits.

The Florida Division of Insurance Fraud recommended charges for a third suspect, but there was insufficient evidence for the state to go forward.

Cox Media Group