Tiger Kidnap: The Crime Within A Crime

A Tiger Kidnap is one of the most dangerous forms of kidnap. Originating from The IRA as a means to force innocent people into carrying out illegal activity, this form of criminality spread rapidly during the 1980’s in Ireland and has been noted to take place across Latin America. A tiger kidnap encompasses a kidnap and off the back of this, a second crime.

This type of kidnap has been associated with meticulous planning because, aside from the plan and execution of the initial kidnap, a plan for the second crime (often on a larger scale) has to be in place for when the initial kidnap occurs. The victim of the kidnap is typically one with significance to the main target and they are, unlawfully, held against their will by the perpetrators. It is not uncommon for the victim to have threats made towards their life during the process, a frightening scenario.

Usually, a kidnap and ransom scenario would see an amount of money being demanded from the criminals to the main target to permit the safe release of the victim. However, this is where a tiger kidnap is different. This is an example of a scenario.

The main target will be contacted and notified that someone with significance to them, typically in their close circle, has been kidnapped. Then, in order for a safe and secure release with no further harm, the target is ordered to commit a crime on behalf of the criminals instead of paying ransom money. These types of crimes can range from a robbery through to an assassination.

A renowned crime committed during a Tiger Kidnap is the Northern Bank Robbery where £26.5 million was stolen following the kidnap of the families of two of the bank officials. Following this ‘close to home’ event various measures have been implicated to reduce the possibility of this type of event such as; amending security measures for opening vaults or cash stores resulting in at least two people having to work simultaneously to gain access to a restricted area.

The issues with this type of kidnap is that they are, morally, very conflicting and damaging. This often results in them being left unreported because the victim has had to commit a highly illegal crime, meaning there is uncertainty of the consequences if they approach authorities. They often remain quiet in order to protect themselves, either from prosecution or further confrontation from the criminal organisation responsible.

Kidnap and Ransom insurance is not limited to a Kidnap or a Ransom. These standalone polices are adaptive and can cover you varying events such as Tiger Kidnap or Hijack. This means that you can have peace of mind that you are protected across a number of events that you could be faced with.

Please contact me to discuss this specialist insurance further.

Charlie Firth