World Champion Pastry Chef’s Fraud Conviction Upheld After Appeal Waived

Yazid Ichemrahen, 33, is definitively convicted of having simulated his burglary. Contrary to all expectations, he did not appeal. "I had appealed because they tarnished my image and my honor, it’s especially for my uncle and aunt who raised me," he pleads. "I’m tired of this story. I’m not a footballer or an actor, I make cakes!" He will add: "I prefer to focus on my work," says Yazid Ichemrahen. "It would cost me very dearly again in lawyer’s fees, to go through two more years of torment in the proceedings..."

Thus, the world champion of frozen desserts (2014) is definitively found guilty of fraud. He had been sentenced, on September 20, 2024, to six months’ suspended imprisonment, a 6,000 euro fine and two years of ineligibility for having organized a fake burglary at his home, in order to recover several tens of thousands of euros from the insurers.

It all started with a complaint that Ichemrahen had filed in February 2022, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. In this complaint, he claimed that he had just returned home and discovered that he had been burgled: theft of luxury clothes, jewelry, a watch and the keys to his Audi RS6. According to the pastry champion - who had participated as a juror in the ranking of Parisian cookies - the equivalent "of 70,000 euros" of objects had been stolen from him, reports Le Parisien. The police find these statements implausible due to the building’s surveillance videos showing the victim leaving his apartment on Saturday, shortly after 11 p.m. We see a man, hood on his head to hide his face, enter the building’s lobby and then leave about half an hour later with two garbage bags full. We also see an Audi RS6 leaving the area of the building. It will later be located in a parking lot near the Champs-Élysées, which will be paid for with a bank card in Yazid Ichemrahen’s name. The latter did not report the theft of this card.

Confronted with these incriminating elements, he finally admits the facts and acknowledges in custody that he acted this way to deal with "financial difficulties."