Týden: Czechs commit high number of bank, post robberies

Prague, March 18 (CTK) - Some 130 bank and post robberies are annually committed in the 10.5 million Czech Republic, which is comparable to Britain that has six times more inhabitants, weekly Tyden writes in its issue out Monday, referring to data from the European Banking Federation (EBF).

Though petrol stations and gambling rooms are easier targets, the number of bank robberies has doubled in the Czech Republic in the past few years, Tyden writes.

In 2003, only some 65 bank and post robberies were registered in the country, while in 2011, the figure rose to 120 with a total damage of almost 30 million crowns and last year 133 bank and post robberies were reported (total damage of 11 million).

In 2011, bank robbers were quite successful since the police seized merely two million crowns of their loot, while last year they seized a quarter of the robbed sum, Tyden writes.

It adds that unlike the Czech Republic, the number of bank robberies in Britain has been decreasing lately.

However, it is not known how much money Czech banking institutions actually lost by robberies, since hold-ups of armoured vehicles carrying their money are not included in the police statistics, Tyden adds.

Police spokeswoman Pavla Kopecka told Tyden that the police were trying to prevent bank robberies in cooperation with the Czech Banking Association, which its deputy director Jan Matousek confirmed.

He, however, refused to disclose concrete measures for tactical reasons. He only admitted that closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems, new technologies to protect cash, controlled entry to bank branches and the staff's training to handle crisis situations had proved successful, Tyden notes.

Nevertheless, neither the Czech Republic nor Britain leads the European standings of bank robberies.

Italian robbers are "European champions" in this respect as they committed almost a half out of some 4000 bank robberies in the whole EU annually, LN writes.

Besides, the biggest bank robbery in Europe, in which some 60 million pounds were stolen from London's Knightsbridge Bank in 1987, was committed by an Italian. The British police caught him later and he he was sentenced to 22 years in prison, Tyden recalls.