Group 4
March 25, 2008 Ceskenoviny
Czech police arrested last week an accomplice of Frantisek Prochazka, who is
suspected of having stolen half a billion crowns in cash from a security agency
last December, Prague City State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Stepanka Zenklova
told today. "The detained person has been put into custody and we will provide
no more information so that not to endanger further investigation," Zenklova
said. She said the alleged accomplice was in custody and faced charges of
robbery in conspiracy. A special police team is looking for Prochazka on whom an
international arrest warrant has been issued. The company afflicted is the G4S
Cash Services, a subsidiary of the supranational security agency Group 4
Securitas that specialises in transport of money. Prochazka worked as a security
guard there. The robbery took place on December 1, 2007, on Saturday morning.
According to the police, Prochazka and his accomplice who was also employed with
the G4S agency as a driver loaded the bags with the cash Prochazka stole from
the company's safe in a van resembling an office vehicle that was used for
transportation of money. While the accomplice drove the vehicle away Prochazka
remained at his workplace. Police declined to say whether the driver was the
person whom they detained last week. According to central Bohemian police
spokeswoman Sona Budska, police today also detained three men from the Pribram
area who are suspected of robbing security agencies' armoured vehicles. They
face up to 12 years in prison for the combined theft of more than 12 million
crowns. According to available information, two of the vehicles robbed by the
suspected perpetrators belonged to G4S. Budska told that she had no information
on a possible connection between the two cases of robbery.
December 10, 2007 Czech Happenings
The state attorney in charge of the case of Frantisek Prochazka, former
employee of G4S security agency, whom the police suspect of stealing 560 million
crowns from the agency, has proposed to issue an international arrest warrant
for him, Stepanka Zenklova from the Prague State Attorney's Office told CTK
today. "The state attorney has proposed to issue a warrant for the arrest of
Prochazka in the Czech Republic, a European arrest warrant and a warrant for his
arrest on the international level," Zenklova said. The Prague 3 District Court
will now decide on issuing the warrants. So far, only a preliminary consent for
Prochazka's detention has been issued. However, after the police officially
accused him on Thursday the state attorney could propose issuing the arrest
warrants, Zenklova said. Previous information by some media that a European
arrest warrant for Prochazka has already been issued has not thus been
confirmed. Prochazka has been accused of theft. He will face up to 12 years in
prison if apprehended and found guilty. The "theft of the century," probably
unprecedented in Czech history, occurred in the G4S agency's premises in Prague
last Saturday. Prochazka's car, driven by an unknown accomplice, arrived at the
complex, took the stolen sum from Prochazka and drove it away. Prochazka, who
worked in the agency as a guard and is armed, disappeared later and he is still
escaping from the police.
December 5, 2007 The Prague Post
Police are searching for a security agency employee who took a record 560
million Kč ($31.2 million) from his company’s Prague 3 office Dec. 1 in what
officials are calling the “robbery of the century.” According to Prague city
police spokeswoman Iva Knolová, “Police would welcome any information about the
suspect, and have launched a statewide search.” The man, 33-year-old František
Procházka, an employee of multinational security agency G4S Cash Services, has
short brown hair, is of medium height and may be carrying a weapon, according to
Knolová. While stealing the money, Procházka may have had an accomplice, the
Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported, citing a source close to the investigation.
“The suspect used an opportune moment to enter the company’s safe room,” the
source says. “He took the cash, put it in bags and had it driven to an unknown
place by his accomplice.” The perpetrators used a company vehicle typically used
to transport clients’ money to drive away with the stolen cash, giving them more
time before G4S staff was able to uncover the heist, the online news server
Aktualne.cz reported. The company, a subsidiary of international security and
cash transport agency Group 4 Securitas, is offering a 2 million euro reward to
anyone who helps catch the perpetrators. The stolen sum is equivalent to G4S’s
annual turnover, according to a statement of the company’s local branch. In an
effort to map Procházka’s route, police have asked the public to provide them
with any information about the getaway vehicle, a white Volkswagen utility
vehicle with a 1L74973 license plate and a sticker with the company’s logo. “The
suspect used this vehicle and was driving it at the time the robbery occurred,”
Knolová says. The vehicle was found abandoned on Kandrtova street in Prague 8
late on the evening of Dec. 2. “It’s possible that an eyewitness noticed the
suspect manipulating the vehicle in an abnormal manner,” Knolová says. Police
are also looking for information regarding a gray metallic Volkswagen Passat
with a 1L81115 license plate, which the suspect may have used after disposing of
the getaway car. If caught, Procházka could face up to two years in prison,
Knolová says.
Rapotice Prison
Rapotice, Czech Republic
October 24, 2006 Prague Monitor
The project of the first private prison in the Czech Republic may be halted
as the team of new Justice Minister Jiri Pospisil (Civic Democrats, ODS) has
found it overpriced by CZK 0.5 billion, Lidove noviny (LB) reported Tuesday.
"The construction of the prison would cost over CZK 1.5 billion but we want to
lower the costs to CZK 1 billion at most," deputy justice minister Frantisek
Steiner told LN. The Justice Ministry approved the plan of a private prison in
Rapotice near Brno, south Moravia, since existing state prisons are overcrowded.
At present there are some 19,000 inmates in Czech prisons, the capacity of which
is insufficient, but the state has no financial resources to build new
facilities, LN says. The private investor was to build a prison from its own
resources and then operate it for 25 years, over which the state would pay the
investor in instalments of about CZK 135 million a year. The prison for some 500
inmates should open in 2009. However, Pospisil and his aides at the Justice
Ministry have questioned the project as they consider it too costly and
inefficient. They also criticise the plan to build a sport stadium for CZK 100
million and a large library in the prison complex.
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