Yukon compensation board ordered to restore benefits

 A man accused of defrauding the Yukon Workers' Compensation board has won his appeal.

It's the second time this year the appeal tribunal has rejected a fraud investigator's allegations.

The former miner, who's now 53 years old, was injured in a 1991 explosion at the Sa Dena Hes mine near Watson Lake. He's been collecting full benefits ever since.

In 2010 the Yukon authorities sent an investigator to check up on the man at his new Vancouver area home. He concluded the man was faking his injuries after video surveillance showed him mowing the lawn, shopping , and taking out the garbage.

The board terminated his benefits last year while the man appealed.

The appeal tribunal has ruled the investigator was wrong. It's ordered full benefits restored retroactively.

The president of the Workers Compensation Board, Valerie Royle, stands behind her fraud squad.

"Investigators are always controversial.  You either love them or hate them right, but we are also accountable to the employers and workers of this territory and it's those workers and employers who sit on our board of directors and look at this, Royle said.

"Every jurisdiction in Canada except P.E.I. has an investigation unit and I wish we didn't need one, but that's not the case," she added.

Royle said an earlier rejected case is still  being reviewed and this latest decision is also awaiting approval by the board’s directors before it's implemented. She said they will decide if the second recent decision is acceptable or needs a rehearing.