Nottage: Legislation coming to deal with cash for gold

The Nassau Guardian

Nottage: Legislation coming to deal with cash for gold

Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage said the government has drafted a bill to deal with cash for gold businesses.

In the House of Assembly this week, Nottage claimed that there is money laundering occurring at those businesses.

“Last week, we had a video conference of national security ministers, and it’s almost like a Caribbean epidemic right now, wherever we are,” he said.

“There is money laundering going on in the cash for gold businesses in this town and so we have to make some amendments to the financial services legislation, and we’ve drafted legislation to deal with cash for gold.”

Nottage said he hoped to bring some resolution to the issue soon.

He was responding to St. Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, who lamented the issue of people having their jewelry snatched from them.

In February, Bahamas Crisis Centre Director Dr. Sandra Dean Patterson called for the closure of cash for gold businesses after she was robbed of her thick gold chain.

Patterson said her chain was violently snatched from her neck as she was manoeuvring through 9 a.m. traffic in the Kemp Road area.

Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade has said that his hands are tied when dealing with suspected stolen goods as cash for gold businesses are fully licensed by the government.

Nottage said in June that of the 506 armed robberies committed between January 1 and June 11, 2013 – 299 or 59 percent of them involved copper or jewelry theft.

Since the introduction of cash for gold type businesses, police have noted an increase in jewelry theft.

In 2011, the government introduced legislation to help combat the growing problem.

The House of Assembly passed the Pawnbrokers and Secondhand Dealers Bill to regulate the industry.

The primary purpose of the law is to monitor the activities of pawnbrokers, deter unlawful property transactions through pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers, and facilitate the efforts of law enforcement in the recovery of stolen goods.

 

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