A judge told a 52-year-old John Deere employee, who has his job back, that he will defer judgment and dismiss a case of unemployment fraud if the employee pays back benefits he owes.

After an Iowa Workforce Development investigation into a fraudulent claim of unemployment benefits, Gerald Lewis, of Moline, appeared Wednesday in Scott County Court for sentencing.

Lewis was accused of fraudulently receiving 25 weeks of Iowa Unemployment Insurance benefits – a total of $12,125 –  from Oct. 21, 2018-April 20, 2019, from Iowa Workforce Development, Des Moines while he worked for John Deere CEC – Davenport Works.

An Iowa Workforce Development investigator confirmed Lewis worked for John Deere CEC during the benefit year in which he claimed unemployment benefits.

In a letter to the court, at that time Lewis says he was going through a divorce, and worried he wouldn’t have enough money to pay bills. He was not working full-time.

Coworkers suggested he claim unemployment. “I wrongfully assumed, knowing they’ve been employed there for so long, that they knew what they were saying,” he wrote, and he also told the judge that on Wednesday.

“When the checks came in, I had to get my truck payments caught up because they were behind,” wrote Lewis, who added he was worried he would lose his truck and his house because he was behind on house payments and monthly bills.

He received a phone call from a representative from unemployment saying he had been overpaid.

“I had no idea I was and told the lady that this was not something I intentionally did wrong,” he wrote. “I thought this was a normal, common, situation.”

“I believed everything was okay. In October,” he wrote. “I was driving to get pizza and was pulled over and arrested. At first, I thought they had the wrong person.”

He writes he was “almost ready to contact unemployment to start paying them back.”

In the letter, he apologizes for “the mistakes I made among my own confusion and lack of knowledge with unemployment.”

“I will never be that gullible again. I’m truly sorry for my actions and they will never happen again,” wrote Lewis. “I want to be able to put this behind me and make it right with everyone involved.”

Judge John Telleen told Lewis the case is not over, but if he continues his ordered probation and pays back what he owes the case will be dismissed.

Lewis said he has worked for John Deere for 10 years and never missed a day. “I’m a hard worker,” he told the judge.

Telleen said Lewis didn’t investigate filing for unemployment like he should have. The judge added he has received letters on Lewis’s behalf from the community and Lewis has nothing else on his record – “You do seem to have been a law-abiding citizen your whole life,” he told Lewis.

He said it is appropriate to give Lewis the opportunity to through his life without a felony conviction.