A British millionaire has quit Switzerland after burglars smashed through a wall in his villa and stole a 200kg safe filled with valuables and irreplaceable family heirlooms.

Robert Gibbins, founder of investment fund Autonomy Capital, has sold his Lake Geneva home and is returning to London with his family after 15 years abroad.

The financier, whose fortune is estimated by Swiss newspaper Blick at between 65million and 70million Swiss francs (£59million to £64million), said the raid had shattered his confidence in the country’s reputation for safety. 

Speaking to Le Temps, he described how intruders targeted his property in Founex, in the canton of Vaud, in the early hours of January 1.

Striking on what he said was ‘one of the only days of the year’ when the house was empty, the burglers forced their way inside and demolished an interior wall to remove the safe before smashing through the main gate and escaping.

Mr Gibbins declined to put a value on the stolen belongings, which included precious family heirlooms that could never be replaced.

He speculated the thieves had done their research before making their move.

The businessman told Le Temps: ‘When I tell my friends in Hong Kong or New York what happened to us – a wall knocked down, a 200kg safe ripped out – they assure me they’ve never heard of anything like it.

Financier Robert Gibbins has sold his home and is returning to London with his family after 15 years in Switzerland

‘That’s when I realise how much we’ve normalised the unthinkable here.’

The break-in prompted conversations with neighbours which, Mr Gibbins said, revealed almost every household in the surrounding area had experienced a burglary in the previous three or four years.

He also joined a community WhatsApp alert group in the Coppet area, where residents shared reports of prowlers and break-ins.

But it was the response to the raid that undermined the family’s sense of security.

Cantonal police recommended reinforced doors, bulletproof windows or private security, according to Mr Gibbins.

For him, the prospect of living behind high walls and floodlights was ‘the antithesis of the open society that makes Switzerland great’, prompting the family to sell their villa, withdraw their children from school and relocate their professional activities to London.

It marked a painful departure from a country which Mr Gibbins had been drawn to by a culture of mutual respect.

He established businesses in Switzerland, employed qualified staff and paid substantial taxes, although he declined to disclose how much.

His two daughters were also born and raised in Vaud, developing a Swiss identity of which he said he had always been proud.

The financier warned that Switzerland risked losing business founders if families no longer felt secure.

He said : ‘Switzerland is a wonderful place but it absolutely must take action.’

Mr Gibbins also told Le Temps: ‘This departure highlights the breakdown of a system.

‘By normalising these crimes on the grounds that no one was physically harmed, Switzerland risks eroding its most valuable asset.’

Official figures, however, paint a mixed picture, with burglaries and break-ins across the country rising by 1.2 per cent to 46,636 cases in 2025.

In Vaud, burglaries across all categories increased by 8.8 per cent, but those targeting homes fell by 8.4 per cent to 2,766 – nearly a third below the 2016 figure.

Home invasions remained rare but rose to 11 cases, compared with between one and five annually over the decade before. 

Police stressed that these offences remained exceptional, although traumatic.