Generali Austria questions strong crime drop

The property insurance chief of a leading insurer has expressed doubts over the recently presented figures showing a decline in crime.Federal Crime Office (BK) director Franz Lang said earlier this week that 2,617 car thefts were reports across Austria in 2010, significantly fewer than in the previous year when 5,297 such offences occurred. He also announced the that the number of burglaries of houses and flats decreased by 39 per cent and 18 per cent respectively year on year in 2010.Now Walter Kupec, head of the property insurance department at Generali Austria said he “cannot fully comprehend” the immense decrease of car theft and burglary figures. Kupec however added that his company’s figures confirm that the number of incidents dropped from 2009 to 2010.Kupec also explained Generali Austria registered a trend of expensive cars becoming a target for criminals. “High-priced vehicles are stolen as they are regarded as a goldmine of spare parts,” he said, adding that these cars are then dismantled to sell their parts abroad.Generali Austria earned 1.94 billion Euros in the first nine months of 2010, up by 4.3 per cent compared to its performance in 2009. The insurance company said it was especially happy about the increasing interest in their life insurance offers.The insurer recently struck a deal with Austria Vienna by upping its sponsorship of the the Austrian Football Bundesliga club which renamed its stadium as the Generali Arena in return. The venue was previously known as Franz Horr Stadium. Generali Austria and the 23-time league champs have been cooperating since the 1970s.The stadium renaming agreement, which was made public last month, will apply for the coming five years. The company and the club said there was a clause to extend it for another five years. Austria Vienna bosses did not declare how much Generali Austria agreed to fork out.