$45,000 Of Bad Paychecks In Oswego: Former Contractors Accuse Company Of Fraud

Several former contractors for Urgent Courier Inc. have accused the now-defunct company of issuing fraudulent paychecks. Patch spoke with 18 individuals who worked for Urgent Courier between October 2016 and March 2017. All 18 said they received checks that bounced, five said they eventually received their back pay and 13 said the company still owes them money.

Urgent Courier was an Oswego-based company that used independent contractors to transport medical samples from homes, medical offices and nursing facilities to laboratories. Craigslist ads were used to recruit drivers, and company staff told new contracts that they could make between $1,000 and $1,800 per week. The hours were long and the drivers used their own cars, but some enjoyed the work.

“I really loved the job, it was like having people’s lives in your hands,” Luz Osorio said about transporting medical samples.“I had a passion for the job.” The 54-year-old accountant and single mother from Kenosha, Wisconsin said she worked for Urgent Courier to help pay for her son’s private school tuition. In 40 days of working at Urgent Courier, Osorio put 11,000 miles on her 2016 Buick Regal. She claimed to have worked from 9 a.m. to 3 or 4 a.m. the next day on some occasions.

Rob Horvath worked for Urgent Courier every day for two years, bringing medical samples from Advocate Urgent Care facilities in Downers Grove and Lemont to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. “We’re trying to provide a service to people who are sick,” Horvath said. He expressed frustration at some of the company’s practices. Horvath, a 43-year-old from Woodridge, said he was compelled by company staff to “speed, break the law or lie,” to get time-critical samples delivered or falsify logs so samples did not appear late. “On their end they just see dollar signs, I see the people every day,” he said.

The promised large paychecks never materialized for some. The company held the pay of new drivers for three weeks before issuing the first check. Luz Osorio’s largest weekly check was about $800, well short of the $1,400 the managers said she would make.

As independent contractors working from home, most drivers rarely saw the owner or managers. The former drivers identified the owner of the company as Alfred Evans, and they said Trisha Cook worked closely with him to manage the company.

In mid-October 2016, paychecks from Urgent Courier began to be rejected when drivers tried to cash or deposit them. Evans and Cook were on vacation at the time, according to the former drivers. Urgent Courier managers gave a variety of reasons for the bad checks. They told drivers that the company was switching to a new bank, that they were switching accounts or that the labs hadn’t paid Urgent Courier.

An Urgent Courier paycheck rejected due to a blocked account

“Every week it was a different story so I don’t know what to believe,” Mohammed Khaleel said. The 48-year-old from Schaumburg drove for Urgent Courier for about nine months. Khaleel estimates that he received $4,000 to $5,000 in bad checks. He believed that the company’s accounts were being drained soon after funds were deposited. The day after getting a paycheck, he would go to his bank before it opened and cash the check as soon as the drive through opened. “If I waited for the lobby to be open there wouldn’t be any money left in the account,” Khaleel said. He said that he recovered all but about $300 of his pay.

Drivers also reported receiving checks with a logo for "FastStat Courier," which they claimed was a former business run by Alfred Evans.

As independent contractors, the drivers paid for their own gas and tolls. “I didn’t have money for gas at one point,” Vincent McCants said. He would drive from Plainfield to Bloomington, Illinois and back, a 200-mile round trip, every weekday. Once his paychecks bounced, the Urgent Courier staff gave him $100 in cash and two $25 gift cards so he could keep driving. On Jan. 9, 2017, McCants called the police to the Urgent Courier’s Oswego office to rectify his back pay, and he eventually received checks that cleared.

In February, a manager with Urgent Courier compiled a list of drivers who had received bad paychecks. The manager said Alfred Evans directed him to make the list so they could start paying the drivers. He tallied up $45,549.47 in bad checks distributed to 17 drivers. The list was not exhaustive, and the manager said several other drivers could have received bad checks too. The manager, who asked to remain anonymous, said the company owed him about $14,000 in back pay, and he said Evans didn’t show up to a meeting to address the bounced checks.

Drivers reported running up credit cards, falling behind on bills and borrowing money to make ends meet. “I’m so fed up I can’t sleep,” Rob Horvath said. He estimates that the company owes him $3,500. "This guy runs people into the ground and steals from them," Horvath said of Alfred Evans.

Brittany Hollins, 28, of Romeoville, was so upset by her experience with Urgent Courier that she made a series of YouTube videos. Hollins said she eventually received her back pay after threatening to go to the police.

Warning: Video features profanity

Brittany Hollins speaking about her experience driving for Urgent Courier via YouTube

Drivers quit as they received more bad checks, and the few remaining staff left the Oswego office in late March or early April. A neighboring tenant at 74 Stone Hill Road said there was a notice on Urgent Courier’s front door that they had not paid rent. Another sticker from the village indicated that the building unit was uninhabitable.

Boarded-up door at Urgent Courier's former office (Patrick Martin/Patch)

While the company may have disappeared, the drivers were still trying to get their back pay. “I cannot focus on my daily activities because I'm wondering when will I ever get paid to pay bills,” former driver Derrick Hodges said in an email to Patch. Hodges and the manager who compiled the list of drivers tried to speak with Urgent Courier’s customers. They contacted ACL Laboratories, a joint venture of “Wisconsin-based Aurora Health Care and Chicago-based Advocate Health Care,” according to its website. Hodges and the manager said ACL Laboratories was a major customer for Urgent Courier, but they were not able to get a response from ACL. The public relations staff for Advocate Health Care told Patch that they were not immediately able to provide comment for this article.

Several former drivers, including Derrick Hodges, met with a detective from the Oswego police department and shared the information about their bad paychecks. The detective told the drivers that the Kendall County State’s Attorney Office would not pursue the case, according to the former drivers. The Kendall County State’s Attorney did not immediately respond to Patch’s request for comment, though an official with the office said they would look into the matter.

On March 24, Derrick Hodges as filed a lawsuit against Alfred Evans in Kendall County Small Claims Court. Judge Robert Pilmer is scheduled to hear the case on May 24. Hodges and the former manager said they have contacted several lawyers, but none have agreed to take their case. “We’ve been having some trouble finding legal representation,” Hodges said. The former manager for Urgent Courier has also filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor.

Several former drivers said Alfred Evans and Trisha Cook have formed a new company called Hurry Courier. According to state records, Cook is listed on the business license at the point of contact for Hurry Courier Inc., and the company was incorporated on Feb. 27, 2017. An office space in Downers Grove had a banner for Hurry Courier, but the office appeared unoccupied.

A banner for Hurry Courier at an office in Downers Grove (Patrick Martin/Patch)

An employee of Hurry Courier contacted by phone said he was hired by Trisha Cook in early April. He also said the company currently has two drivers. A post on Craigslist indicates that the company is seeking more contract drivers. Patch has made multiple attempts to contact Alfred Evans and Trisha Cook without success.

Craigslist ad for Hurry Courier Inc.

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