New York Skydiver Charged with Bilking Workers’ Comp

The back injury that supposedly prevented Jacob Bancroft from working apparently didn’t keep him from jumping out of airplanes.

The 28-year-old Hudson Falls, New York resident has been charged with illegally collecting $83,000 in workers’ compensation benefits for a back injury he said he suffered while working as a press operator.

State Insurance Department officials say a fraud investigator observed Bancroft running a construction company, volunteering as a firefighter and hiking. They also say surveillance videos showed him skydiving after he was declared disabled in February 2007.

He’s been charged with insurance fraud, grand larceny, falsifying business records and workers’ comp fraud.

A telephone number listed for Bancroft was disconnected.