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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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