Robert Gunn, 69, of Pacific Grove, was sentenced on July 2, 2014 to one year in jail and five years of probation after pleading guilty to failing to register as an employer with the Employment Development Department and failing to obtain workers’ compensation insurance.

In May of last year, the California Department of Insurance received information that the contractor did not have workers’ compensation insurance and told his employees, if he did, the expense  would come out of their paychecks.

“This is more than not playing by the rules, this is breaking the law, having no respect for your employees and putting them at risk,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona.  CSLEA represents investigators within The California Department of Insurance and the Contractor State License Board, the two agencies that, along with the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, investigated this case.

According to investigators, at one time, when one of Gun’s employees was hurt on the job, Gunn paid for him to see a chiropractor, hoping it would not be discovered that Gunn did not have workers’ comp insurance.

In addition to serving jail time and probation, Gunn was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay more than $10,000 in fines.