NC furniture retailer kept money, stays in prison

HIGH POINT, NC (AP) — A former North Carolina furniture store owner is staying in prison after judges decided he chose to live well instead of repaying customers he cheated.

The High Point Enterprise reported Thursday that 48-year-old Kenneth Lee Cornelison will stay behind bars on a sentence running until 2015.

Cornelison was convicted in 2003 of taking more than $300,000 from nearly 160 customers of his High Point store who paid in advance for furniture they never received.

Cornelison was freed on probation on condition that he make monthly payments to repay his customers. The state Court of Appeals ruled this week that Cornelison increased his personal spending while falling behind in restitution payments.
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Information from: High Point Enterprise, http://www.hpe.com

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