Conviction in body enlargement scam

An Israeli court sentenced a man to two years in prison Sunday for operating a fake clinic that offered penis enhancements and so-called medical treatments to make people taller, which failed to work.

Simon Sofer told dozens of clients he was a doctor and said he could add up to 10 cm (3.9 inches) to their height or six cm (2.4 inches) to their genitals, the Tel Aviv court said. His clinic, in operation since 1999, was not medically supervised, a government prosecutor had told the court. Sofer has appealed the conviction.

He pre-charged patients 5,250 and 16,000 shekels ($1,125 and $3,430) to increase their height with a Russian-made treatment method. He told the court genitalia enlargements were not performed, despite advertisements that promised them. People who sought to become taller were suspended from the air by their arms and legs, or had their bodies stretched with weights. Others were poked with needles or given food supplements and exercises to perform at home.

"Only a lunatic could take a person who has not been checked (by a doctor) and hang him upside down," the court in a transcript quoted a witness as saying at one trial session in February. The court said Sofer had endangered the health of his clients and that none had received their "expected" result. A judge sentenced him to two years jail, taking into account he had no criminal record and lives with his mother, who supports him financially. The court gave no age for Sofer.