Court sends three French youths to prison for robbery

Ostrava, North Moravia, March 21 (CTK) - A Czech court Thursday sentenced three young French men to prison for stealing one million crowns from a house of a Czech family in Karvina near Ostrava in December 2011.

The daughter of the owner of the house was a girlfriend of one of the youths. As this man knew there was a lot of money in the house, he told his friends about it and they planned to rob the house when the owners were away from home.

The three men, who made a copy of the front door key, found the key of only one of the two safes in house. When they tried to break the other safe, the woman who lived in the house returned home and disturbed them.

The burglars tied her up and locked her in a small storeroom.

They found the key from the other safe among her keys. They took 860,000 crowns and 6000 euros from the safes and divided the money between themselves.

The man who organised the robbery on the spot escaped. He received a sentence of 6.5 years behind bars. The court said he had a criminal past, violating law in France as well as other countries.

The two other men were sent to 5.5 years in prison. They attended the trial, showed regret over the crime and covered a part of the damage. Both gave up their right to appeal the verdict.