VSIt’s a pretty name, Paulette. Somewhat outdated, almost gone. In 2020, INSEE estimated the average age of women with this name at 82. By looking for “Paulette” in the directory, Michael Haziza bet on the fact that he would probably have, on the phone, vulnerable people, easy to bamboozle. Prime targets who he could make believe he is a bank adviser or a family member. Defenseless prey who, blind to the subterfuge, would agree to make transfers to him or communicate identifiers to him. Sentenced in November 2022 to six years in prison for fraud by the Tours Criminal Court, the man was summoned by the Orleans Court of Appeal on Tuesday March 21.
The first to fall for the trap, Paulette B., 78, from Ballan-Miré (Indre-et-Loire), was robbed of 44,000 euros in this way, in July 2020. On the phone, the scammer pretended to be his son and told him he was in serious financial trouble. After 45 calls in the same day, the old lady had ended up granting a first mandate of 1,500 euros to this false offspring. Three more followed within the week. Then came the turn of Paulette G., 84, from Bessines-sur-Gartempe (Haute-Vienne); Paulette P., 76, from Saint-Cyprien (Pyrénées-Orientales); Paulette A., 79, from Guipavas (Finistère); Paulette B., 82, from Parentis-en-Born (Landes); Paulette A., 79, from Vittel (Vosges); finally Paulette D., 56, from Roubaix (North), the youngest of the group.
In front of all, Michael Haziza took on the accents of a bank adviser to demand account and credit card numbers, access codes, cryptograms… The trick allowed him to steal sums ranging from 300 euros to 44,000 euros, by means of a clever device comprising two accomplices (including his younger brother), false identity cards, “on/off” telephone chips (allowing the generation of five different numbers) and fraudulent bank accounts. The “Paulettes” were not the only ones to have been duped during this period. Registered on Leboncoin, owners of gold coins and precious objects (watches, bracelets, etc.) were relieved of their goods, through the same channels, against wooden checks.
Eight years imprisonment required
In front of the court, Michael Haziza proclaimed his innocence, swearing to have made no appeal “to those ladies”, returning the organization of the deception to his former associates (sentenced to 6 and 18 months in prison suspended in the first instance) and to a mysterious sponsor on the run. As the Advocate General, Isabelle Pagenelle, recalled, his criminal record (eight mentions) hardly pleads in his favor. There are convictions for acts of the same nature, pronounced in 2018 and 2019 in Paris and Marseille. The victims were then already called Paulette, but also Simone, Liliane, Suzanne, Madeleine… And the magistrate warned the repeat offender: “Be careful, the old first names are coming back into fashion. A Paulette could be 5 years old, in a few years”she launched before requiring eight years of imprisonment against him.
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