Wrong criminal officers in Vienna: Penstarts for several years!

Wrong criminal officers in Vienna: Penstarts for several years!

In a sensational trial at the Vienna Court, several years of prison sentences were imposed against three men who had pretended to be false criminal officers. A 41-year-old defendant was sentenced to 18 months in prison because he had chauffeured the main perpetrators for the crime scenes. The man asked about time, while the other two defendants, Germans with Romanian roots, accepted their punishments, which are already final. Both main defendants in Germany have extensive prediction directories, with twelve or seven criminal records for property offenses. A particularly explosive aspect of the case is that one of the main defendants was released from prison shortly before the acts.

In autumn 2024, the accused relocated their criminal machinations to Austria. Between mid -October and mid -November they knocked on the doors of older people and gave themselves out as criminal officers. In doing so, they were partly with fake ID cards and claimed that a Romanian burglar gang had already struck in the neighborhood. You would therefore have to control every apartment. In two cases they penetrated the apartments, but raned them without any noteworthy prey, while in two other cases they were rejected by the citizens. While the main perpetrators passed confession, the chauffeur denied his responsibility and explained that he was only working as a driver.

crime statistics in Austria

The incidents are part of a larger trend in the crime in Austria , which has achieved a maximum of 528,000 marked offenses in 2023, which corresponds to the highest level since 2016. Vienna spent over a third of these offenses. The figures on foreign crime are particularly worrying: in 2022, almost 43% of suspects were foreigners, and 58% of the newly detained came from abroad. The most common foreign perpetrators come from countries such as Romania, Germany and Serbia.

As part of the police crime statistics (PKS) , the development of criminal events in Austria is recorded. These statistics, which have been managed electronically since 2001, offer crucial insights into crime and are an important instrument for planning strategic criminal police measures. Increasing figures in economic crime and cybercrime that have risen continuously in recent years are particularly striking. In 2023, around 103,000 cases of economic crime and around 65,900 cyber offenses were displayed. The clarification rate was 31.6% for cyber offenses, which signals optimization needs.

social relevance and effects

Another central point is the increasing distrust of immigrants, since 70% of Austrians believe that these crime problems tighten. Despite the worrying statistics, trust in the police remains relatively high: 77% of the population expressed their confidence in the police in a survey in spring 2024. At the same time, the survey shows that 72% of Austrians have confidence in the judiciary, which indicates a certain degree of confidence in the fight against crime.

The case of the wrong criminal officers not only reflects an individual criminal act, but also in the context of the broader social discourse on security, immigration and the role of the rule of law in Austria.