Spokane man charged with stealing $113,271 in workers' comp benefits

Doyle Ronald Wheeler, 36, of Spokane, has been charged in Spokane County Superior Court with first degree felony theft for illegally collecting workers’ compensation benefits.

Wheeler collected benefits from 2008 to 2011 on a workplace-injury claim for a neck and back injury. The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) stopped benefit payments after an investigation determined that Wheeler was operating his own businesses – The Pensmith, Ammo Head Design and Ammo Head Hydrographics – while receiving the workers’ compensation benefits.

Wheeler claimed he was unable to work after a slow-moving pi...