South Carolina Store Owner Guilty of Insurance Fraud

A jury has found a Hartsville, S.C., store owner guilty of faking an assault and setting fire to her own store to get insurance money.

The Morning News of Florence reports a judge sentenced 47-year-old Claudette Hulsey to three years in prison after the verdicts were read Saturday. Hulsey was charged with insurance fraud, third-degree arson and a false police report. She faced up to 20 years in prison.

Hulsey told police two men broke into her children’s clothing store in Hartsville in January 2011, choked her unconscious and sexually assaulted her before setting the store on fire.

But several law enforcement officers testified during the weeklong trial in Darlington County that Hulsey’s story changed several times and didn’t make sense.