2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 15:44
Many stolen automobiles have disappeared, even though the police know where they can be found. For the insurers, the effort to get back is sometimes simply too high.
Despite the overall decrease in the car theft rate in
Germany, the number of vehicles that have disappeared permanently is increasing. Many are moved abroad and secured there again. But the German insurers forego the repatriation. For example, the Albanian police informed the German car insurers via Interpol that they had seized 60 cars stolen in Germany last year.
High return costs
The car insurers have only brought a single BMW X5 back
to Germany. Katrin Rüter de Escobar, advisor for property and casualty insurance at the German Insurance Association (GDV): "Two difficult legal systems have to be coordinated that affect the public prosecutor, the police and customs." In addition, the costs are probably too high: While around 2,000 euros are usually incurred for the return transport of a vehicle stolen abroad, this is many times as much in Albania. The Association of Insured in Hamburg suspects that the car insurers prefer to pay out the damage amount in order to be able to enforce higher premiums more easily. (mid)
