Geneva has been rocked by home robberies targeting wealthy residents, threatening to tarnish the area’s reputation as a safe haven for the ultra-rich.
The attacks have seen intruders breaking into homes and threatening residents with guns before fleeing over Switzerland’s border into France carrying expensive watches, jewellery and other valuables.
One prominent victim was Alain Prost, whose home to the west of Lake Geneva was raided in May by a masked gang. The 71-year-old former F1 world champion suffered minor head injuries, and one of his relatives was forced to unlock a safe holding valuables. Five people were arrested and charged.
Gangs are said to identify and study targets in detail, including by using social media, where posts of lifestyles, cars, clothes and holidays can indicate wealth levels – and thus earmark people for robbery.
Alain Prost was injured when a masked gang raided his home and forced a relative to open a safe in May – Getty
Burglaries of occupied homes, which Swiss police have described as “home-jackings”, are on the rise, with 18 such incidents in Geneva in 2025, up from 15 in 2024, even as overall crime has declined, according to police figures.
On the whole, since 2019, the risk of being targeted by burglars in Geneva has been nearly three times higher than the national average.
Florence Bettschart-Narbel, of the legislature in the Canton of Vaud, north of Lake Geneva, told The Financial Times: “This trend has recently become much more organised, targeted and common. We are concerned about the impact on Switzerland’s attractiveness to foreigners and companies.”
Authorities are seeking to improve policing along the normally long and porous border between Switzerland and France. That could take the form of more officers deployed and targeted checks in border areas, including on smaller roads.
Other proposals include blocking the publication of property information, such as prices and owner names, which would roll back a transparency measure to identify the home addresses of the ultra-rich.
Business leaders fear security decline
The authorities say the rise in home robberies is in part because private villas are far easier targets than jewellers and banks with high-security measures.
Marc Gygli, the head of Geneva’s organised-crime robbery unit, spoke on Swiss television in November, just before an anticipated theft spike during the holiday season.
He pointed out that robbers had taken about 10,000 francs (about £7,400) in one Geneva bank robbery, yet could find millions of pounds worth of valuables in the homes of very wealthy residents.
A survey of business leaders in Geneva found that nearly 70 per cent thought security had deteriorated in the past three years, because of a lack of police presence and the rise in home-jackings.
Similar concerns have been raised by a group representing commodity trading firms, which said that declining security conditions had been endangering the attractiveness of Geneva, and could scare away people and companies.
