Israeli Court Sentences Serial Fraudster to 10 Years for Exploiting War Evacuees

A court in Ramat Gan sentenced Haim Avitan to 10 years and three months in prison for a wide-ranging, sophisticated fraud scheme that ran for about 14 months, most of it during the Israel-Hamas war. The Ramla Magistrate’s Court also imposed suspended sentences, a 100,000 shekel fine or one year in prison instead, and compensation totaling 1,589,167 shekels to be divided among 21 victims.

Avitan, who has a lengthy criminal record and a gambling problem, was convicted on his own confession as part of a procedural plea deal without an agreed sentence. The indictment covered two cases and 20 counts, including dozens of aggravated fraud offenses, forgery, impersonation, and issuing 41 checks without cover.

According to the facts he was convicted on, from June 2023 through October 2024 he approached many businesses and ordered food, drinks and coal worth 2,729,432.2 shekels, knowing in advance he would not pay. He used false identities and different phone numbers to hide who he was. During the war, he cynically exploited public goodwill by at times pretending to be the owner of a hotel in Herzliya housing evacuees from the north and the Gaza border area, claiming the goods were for them.

The businesses delivered the goods, and in return he gave them checks that were not his and that he knew would bounce. When they later contacted him, he sent more bad checks or forged WhatsApp documents that supposedly proved bank transfers. Judge Dorit Saban-Noy said, “There is no comparison between an ordinary fraudster and someone who exploited a national crisis,” stressing that the crimes seriously harmed commerce and public trust and that verbal remorse was not enough because he never returned the money.