SnowNews

Ski Cops Fight Pikeys and Cheating Brits

French police will be stepping up their action against ski theft and insurance fraud this winter after a number of different initiatives being taken by the Gendarmes last winter brought spectacular results. The best results were in the two big Isère resorts of Alpe d'Huez and Les Deux Alpes where reports of ski and snowboard theft were down by 50% from over a thousand in 2002-2003 to just 500 in 2003-2004.


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The police say that 95% of theft reports involve hire gear. Most of these are made at the end of a holiday and the vast majority are by British and Dutch guests. Countries where insurance companies do not sufficiently scrutinize claims. The police have therefore decided to ask people who say they are victims of theft to first of all pay the hire shop for their loss before they can put in a complaint. The penalties for false claims are also clearly shown in the Gendarme's offices in different languages. The police have also raided apartments and cars armed with the serial numbers of hire gear. After last winter's successes the operations will be reinforced.

In the Savoie, which has around 50% of the French ski market, ski and snowboard thefts have numbered between 3000 to 4000 each year for the last 3 years. Last year the police kept a record of people who made complaints about theft and they noticed that 621 names came up twice. The police controlled these people when they left the resort and also alerted their tour operators. According to the Colonel Cailloz, insurance fraud isn't the major problem. Theft has more to do with season workers who steal gear to make money for parties. There is organised theft on the TGV at Bourg-Saint-Maurice where thieves get off at Moutiers with people's gear. "There are also hire shops who dump their gear in order to renew their stock. There are a lot of thefts done to order and of course Pikey's who steal skis and boards in bulk to resell down the valley in ski auctions" According to the Colonel.


Don't let go of your skis over lunch

In the Haute-Savoie, where the British represent just 7% of guest but 24% of thefts measures have been taken to search the cars of foreigners. In the Hautes-Alpes thefts have dropped from 530 to 480. Hire shops have been asked to increase deposits and this seems to have had an affect on false declarations. There has also been a campaign in mountain restaurants to make people aware of the situation.

-- translated from newswire report

posted by davidof @ 9:49 AM