Post by Bozur on Apr 10, 2005 3:51:45 GMT -5
Banks remain easy prey for armed robbers
There was a bank robbery in Athens almost every other day in 2004, providing gangs with a total haul for the year of 3 million euros
The ministerial decree on security in banks requires security precautions such as revolving doors, which are known deterrents, but very few banks have installed them. The pictured bank is ‘closed due to a robbery.’
By Yiannis Souliotis - Kathimerini
Fitnesses of bank robberies have a hard time forgetting the experience and any bank employee who has survived one lives in fear of another.
“It took me a long time to recover,” said the manager of a bank recently robbed. “I kept hearing the customers’ screams and whenever someone who looked like one of the robbers would come in, I would break out in a cold sweat. The one-and-a-half minutes the robbery lasted was sheer hell,” she told Kathimerini.
“One of the robbers put a gun to my head. I was so scared I thought I would faint. I managed to keep calm until it was over. It took a while, but now I try not to think about it so much,” she said.
One of her colleagues at a main branch said most eyewitnesses freeze up and can’t react, but just stand there watching every move the robbers make.
“You can’t do anything else. After all, everything hangs by a thread and the robbers’ reactions are unpredictable. It’s better not to take any risks,” she said.
In Attica there were 150 robberies in 2004, compared to 170 in 2003, more than one every two days. According to police sources, the total amount stolen from banks in 2004 was around 3 million euros.
Security arrangements in banks are covered by a ministerial decree of 1997 and although they are already considered outdated, it appears that they have never even been implemented. For example, Article 2, Paragraph D of the decree provides for revolving doors and sensor devices that one sees only in very few bank branches.
“Banks are commercial concerns and so operating costs are taken into account,” said Lambros Pappas, a senior Attica criminal investigation department (CID) officer. “They have insured their money and so do not implement security measures because of the cost. It is an extremely dangerous tactic that is a threat to public order.”
Also critical of banks’ security measures is Giorgos Zafeiropoulos, also at Attica CID. He says the measures are so inadequate that robbers can do what they like.
“What point is there in having a closed-circuit surveillance system just inside the bank, when robbers come in with their faces covered with hoods? We often find that the video system doesn’t work. I am afraid that the banks cooperate more with television stations than with the police.”
The federation of bank unions (OTOE) recently made a number of suggestions regarding bank security, but to no avail.
"In 2001 we set up a tripartite committee of bankers, staff and representatives of the Public Order Ministry which drafted a report on the inadequacies in the security system, but nothing has changed,” said Zois Peppes, a member of the OTOE board.
He revealed that at the end of last year, the committee had a meeting with Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, where the need to take action was noted but not acted upon.
Since the beginning of this year, the number of armed robberies has been cut thanks to the arrest of organized gangs, particularly a four-member gang which had committed 50 robberies since 2002.
However, the problem remains. In mid-February, the heavily armed “gang of five” entered a bank in Gyzi. The hooded, and clearly well-trained, men emptied the cashier’s drawers in less than three minutes, but it appears they had not thought of everything as, on their way out, they bumped into the police arriving on the scene. They did not hesitate to open fire before making their getaway. All this happened on one of Athens’s busiest thoroughfares.
In contrast to what bank staff and customers have observed, officials of the Greek Bank Union (EET) claim that the union’s priority is to ensure the physical safety of staff and customers.
“We abide by all the provisions of Ministerial Decree 3015/97, and occasionally set up committees to evaluate the implementation of security precautions,” they say, adding that banks show no tolerance in the event of a robbery, as this would only harm the bank’s reputation.
This view is reinforced by the insurance companies, whose representatives say that insurance premiums are determined by the branch’s record (such as how many robberies have taken place there) as well as by security factors. So a bank with inadequate security precautions has to pay higher premiums.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=53907
There was a bank robbery in Athens almost every other day in 2004, providing gangs with a total haul for the year of 3 million euros
The ministerial decree on security in banks requires security precautions such as revolving doors, which are known deterrents, but very few banks have installed them. The pictured bank is ‘closed due to a robbery.’
By Yiannis Souliotis - Kathimerini
Fitnesses of bank robberies have a hard time forgetting the experience and any bank employee who has survived one lives in fear of another.
“It took me a long time to recover,” said the manager of a bank recently robbed. “I kept hearing the customers’ screams and whenever someone who looked like one of the robbers would come in, I would break out in a cold sweat. The one-and-a-half minutes the robbery lasted was sheer hell,” she told Kathimerini.
“One of the robbers put a gun to my head. I was so scared I thought I would faint. I managed to keep calm until it was over. It took a while, but now I try not to think about it so much,” she said.
One of her colleagues at a main branch said most eyewitnesses freeze up and can’t react, but just stand there watching every move the robbers make.
“You can’t do anything else. After all, everything hangs by a thread and the robbers’ reactions are unpredictable. It’s better not to take any risks,” she said.
In Attica there were 150 robberies in 2004, compared to 170 in 2003, more than one every two days. According to police sources, the total amount stolen from banks in 2004 was around 3 million euros.
Security arrangements in banks are covered by a ministerial decree of 1997 and although they are already considered outdated, it appears that they have never even been implemented. For example, Article 2, Paragraph D of the decree provides for revolving doors and sensor devices that one sees only in very few bank branches.
“Banks are commercial concerns and so operating costs are taken into account,” said Lambros Pappas, a senior Attica criminal investigation department (CID) officer. “They have insured their money and so do not implement security measures because of the cost. It is an extremely dangerous tactic that is a threat to public order.”
Also critical of banks’ security measures is Giorgos Zafeiropoulos, also at Attica CID. He says the measures are so inadequate that robbers can do what they like.
“What point is there in having a closed-circuit surveillance system just inside the bank, when robbers come in with their faces covered with hoods? We often find that the video system doesn’t work. I am afraid that the banks cooperate more with television stations than with the police.”
The federation of bank unions (OTOE) recently made a number of suggestions regarding bank security, but to no avail.
"In 2001 we set up a tripartite committee of bankers, staff and representatives of the Public Order Ministry which drafted a report on the inadequacies in the security system, but nothing has changed,” said Zois Peppes, a member of the OTOE board.
He revealed that at the end of last year, the committee had a meeting with Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, where the need to take action was noted but not acted upon.
Since the beginning of this year, the number of armed robberies has been cut thanks to the arrest of organized gangs, particularly a four-member gang which had committed 50 robberies since 2002.
However, the problem remains. In mid-February, the heavily armed “gang of five” entered a bank in Gyzi. The hooded, and clearly well-trained, men emptied the cashier’s drawers in less than three minutes, but it appears they had not thought of everything as, on their way out, they bumped into the police arriving on the scene. They did not hesitate to open fire before making their getaway. All this happened on one of Athens’s busiest thoroughfares.
In contrast to what bank staff and customers have observed, officials of the Greek Bank Union (EET) claim that the union’s priority is to ensure the physical safety of staff and customers.
“We abide by all the provisions of Ministerial Decree 3015/97, and occasionally set up committees to evaluate the implementation of security precautions,” they say, adding that banks show no tolerance in the event of a robbery, as this would only harm the bank’s reputation.
This view is reinforced by the insurance companies, whose representatives say that insurance premiums are determined by the branch’s record (such as how many robberies have taken place there) as well as by security factors. So a bank with inadequate security precautions has to pay higher premiums.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=53907